The Marauders: 1st Year
by Cookiepaw
Summary: The first year at Hogwarts for the Marauders turns out to be all they'd ever dreamed. RLSB preslash. JPLE. Soon to be followed by 2nd year. I might write a nonslash version afterwards.
1. Chapter 1 Friends and Foes

_**Full summary: **The adventures of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigtrew. Their first year (and other odd numbers) are told from Remus's and Sirius's points of view. Their second year (and even numbers) are from James's and Peter's. And, of course, I haven't left out our other favourite characters, Lily Evans and Snivellus Snape!_

_**Warnings:** Mild language, RLSB slash MUCH later on (pre-slash sooner)_

_**Disclaimer: **Everything except the OCs belong to JKRowling._

Chapter 1

Friends and Foes

Remus Lupin shut his eyes for ten seconds, then opened them again. It wasn't a dream. He had managed to run through a wall, the barrier to platform nine and three quarters, and there in front of him was the gleaming steam engine, the Hogwarts Express. Around him students were hurrying back and forth, saying goodbye to their parents or meeting their friends. But Remus had no friends; not yet anyway. His father, who had been reluctant to let him go to Hogwarts, had told him that he would have to hide his secret until he made some good friends who would support him.

You see, Remus Lupin was a werewolf. As a child of just four years old, he had been walking through the woods with his mother and father, when they were ambushed by Fenrir Greyback. Remus's father, a wizard, knew the threat that Greyback was, and defended his family against him. But he had managed to get on Greyback's wrong side, and, as punishment, the werewolf had bitten Remus, causing the young boy to become an uncontrollable monster every month.

Unfortunately, his Muggle mother had been turned against the boy, and she repeatedly told him how she hated him, until one night at the full moon, she had stumbled across him in the cellar, forgetting which night it was, and Remus had ripped her to shreds. The whole family had been devastated. Remus hadn't even been able to show his face for days.

When Remus reached ten years old, Albus Dumbledore visited them, and had had a word with Mr Lupin. Unfortunately, Remus still hadn't been told what Dumbledore had said, only that he was permitting him to attend Hogwarts, under special precautions.

Remus dragged his trolley over to the scarlet steam engine in front of him, and tried to lift his trunk into the train, but it was too heavy.

"Do you need a hand?" came a voice. Remus lifted his head and spotted a tall dark-haired boy strolling towards him. The boy helped him heave the trunk into the hold, and then reached out his hand. Carefully, Remus shook it, trying not to reveal the dreadful scars that he had been given from the attack.

"Frank Longbottom," said the other boy, either not noticing Remus's cuts, or being too polite to ask about them. "I'm in second year."

"Remus Lupin," Remus told him hastily.

"First year, right?" asked Frank. Remus nodded. Frank carried on, "Well, if you need any help, just ask me, OK?"

"Thanks!" Remus exclaimed, feeling himself brighten up a bit. He ascended onto the train holding his rucksack, and searched for a compartment. He stared into the various cabins around him. The first was full of a group of fifth years, the next had a lone Gryffindor third-year. The next one, however, was empty. Remus slid the door open, and sat down on the soft seat. He stared out of the window, just watching as more and more students climbed aboard the train.

As the platform began to get emptier, the whistle blew and the last remaining students waved a last good-bye to their parents and clambered aboard the Hogwarts Express. The last student to get on was a very small, slightly chubby boy, who was probably a first year as well.

Remus whipped a book out of his rucksack, found the page he had marked and began to read.

But before he had even read just one page, there was a knock on the compartment door, and he looked up to see the face of the small boy peering in through the glass. Remus rose to his feet and walked across the compartment to slide the door open, but the boy, on seeing him get up, had opened it himself.

"Sorry, are these seats taken?" he asked, sounding shy.

"No, you can come in," said Remus, moving aside to let him through. The boy sat down, and Remus sat opposite him, about to open his book, but then that would be a little antisocial, so he placed it beside him on the seat.

"What's your name?" he asked the little boy. "I'm Remus Lupin."

"P-Peter Pettigrew," stuttered Remus's new companion. Then suddenly his eyes shot wide open as Remus's sleeve slipped down, revealing an assortment of scars, bruises and silver burns. "What happened to you?"

"Oh…I…erm…was in an accident when I was younger," Remus murmured, looking at his hands, which were just as scarred. Luckily, Peter must have realised that Remus was reluctant to tell him, and he started talking about Hogwarts.

"What house do you want to be in?" Peter questioned.

"I hope I'm in Gryffindor," said Remus, "but so does everyone. Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad, though."

He knew he was clever enough to be in Ravenclaw, but the others would be clever enough to work out that he was a werewolf, in no time. He nearly shuddered as the thought hit him.

"I want to go to Gryffindor," said Peter. "But my mum says I'm not brave enough. I'll most likely end up in Hufflepuff," he added with a sigh.

"Nothing wrong with Hufflepuff," Remus comforted him. "At least it's not Slytherin."

"Yeah," Peter breathed in relief. "Have you tried playing Quidditch?"

"No, not yet," said Remus.

"I've tried it with my siblings, but I'm not very good," Peter explained.

"You'll get better," Remus assured him. "So, who are your siblings?"

"Two of them are already at Hogwarts," Peter informed Remus. "Alex is in third year and Sophie's in fifth-year. I'm the next along. Then I have two younger siblings called Ellie and Jack. They're twins."

"Wow, big family," Remus said. "I'm an only child. What's it like to have siblings?"

"Well, you don't get lonely," said Peter, "but sometimes they can get a bit annoying."

As Peter continued to talk, Remus looked out of the window. They were already outside London, tearing through the countryside. He felt excitement well up inside him; this was the moment he'd been waiting a long time for, and now it was happening.

0o0o0o0o0

Sirius Black tore the wrapper off his Pumpkin Pasty, and flung it aside. He opened his mouth wide, and sank his teeth deep into the cake. Flavour erupted over his tongue, and he licked his lips. _I love Hogwarts' food_, he thought happily.

He was a boy with a well-built form. He had a perfectly sculpted pointed nose, straight white teeth, and glistening grey eyes. His hair was raven-black and fell haphazardly about his face as if he'd cut it himself; he had a fringe on only one side of his forehead and it gradually became longer so it merged into the rest of his hair, which fell just below his shoulders.

There was a knock on the door of the compartment, and a bright young face appeared as it opened. "Please can I sit in here?" asked the boy. Sirius shrugged and pushed aside some of the sweets that were scattered across the seat opposite. The other boy sat down.

"Hi," he said. "My name's James. What's yours?"

"Sirius Black," replied Sirius, opening a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Carefully, he picked out a red one, and popped it into his mouth. He quickly spat it out again when he realised it was blood. Taking a yellow one instead – which turned out to be banana – Sirius turned to James.

"Want a bean?" he asked.

At first the other student didn't seem to notice; he was too busy staring at a girl the other end of the compartment, who had her head leaning against the window, then he turned his head and looked down at the box. "Sure," he said, reaching his hand in and taking out a pale green one.

"Be careful," Sirius advised. "I wouldn't trust any of these beans to have a good flavour."

James slipped it warily into his mouth. He let the flavour sink in for a bit, then chewed. "I think it's OK," he said. "It tastes like peppermint."

Then, all of a sudden, Sirius and James seemed to decide they would be best mates, and they started talking about everything they knew: Hogwarts houses; Quidditch; Hogsmeade…

"…and Honeyduke's is full of more sweets than you can imagine!" Sirius was saying. "Well, that's what Andromeda said, anyway."

"Andromeda?"

"My cousin," Sirius explained quickly. However, before he could say anything else, a sullen-faced boy had stopped outside the door of the compartment and pushed it open. He walked past them and sat down opposite the girl. Sirius didn't really take any interest in what they were saying, until the boy said to his friend, "You'd better be in Slytherin."

"Slytherin?" James repeated. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" he added to Sirius. Sirius shrugged. "My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said. "The Blacks are the biggest family of pure-blood-supporting gits in the whole of the wizarding world."

"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed all right."

Sirius didn't blame his friend. After all, nobody in the Black Slytherin-filled family liked Sirius. He was always going on about why there was nothing wrong with Muggle-borns and half-bloods, and he also loved to play pranks on members of his family who disagreed with him. The only one of them he liked was Andromeda. He grinned. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

"Gryffindor," said James, lifting an invisible sword. "Where dwell the brave at heart. Like my dad."

The miserable-looking boy murmured a disparaging noise, to which James responded, "Got a problem with that?"

"No, if you'd rather be brawny than brainy-"

Sirius thought of a brilliant comeback, and interjected, "Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?"

James roared with laughter. The girl sat up. "Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."

"Ooooo…" said James and Sirius together, and sniggered again. Sirius noticed James stick out his leg as Severus passed.

"See ya, _Snivellus_," Sirius called, and the compartment door slammed. "What a creep," he remarked.

"Little oddball, isn't he?" James replied. "He'll have a little trouble fitting in."

"Seems he already knew that girl, though," Sirius said. "I wonder how."

"Shame," James added. "She didn't seem too bad."

"Are we in _love_, James?" Sirius mocked. James chucked a bean at him.


	2. Chapter 2 The Slytherin in Gryffindor

Chapter 2

The Slytherin in Gryffindor

The train came to a halt. Remus, now dressed in his brand new Hogwarts robes, followed Peter out of the train and onto the station. A loud voice was calling "first-years, this way" and so they moved in its direction. They were greeted by a huge man, with a long black beard. Peter dived behind his new friend. Remus chuckled, and walked past the large man, to where a group of first-years was gradually forming.

He watched where the older students were going, and spotted a boy who resembled Peter a little. "Is that Alex?" he asked. Peter followed his gaze then replied, "Yes, that's him."

"He's in Gryffindor," Remus acknowledged, noticing the colour of Alex's collar on his robes and jumper. "That should give you a good chance."

"Yeah, but Sophie's in Hufflepuff," Peter said, looking at the floor. Remus watched the students leave, towards some carriages, then gasped as he saw the beasts pulling them. "Look at those!" he exclaimed, pointing at them, just as two other boys appeared next to him and Peter.

"What?" Peter asked, sounding confused.

"Those! Those huge horse things pulling the carriages!"

"There's nothing there, Remus," Peter mumbled, staring in the right direction. The two boys nearest started sniggering. Remus turned to face them.

"Seeing things, are we?" asked one with long black hair.

"B-but," stuttered Remus, "they are there! C-can't you see them?"

"C'mon," came the giant man's booming voice, and Remus and Peter hurried ahead of the other two students. The small crowd of first years arrived at the edge of a huge stretch of black water.

"Righ', four to a boat," the large man called, as rain began to fall.

"I have a feeling we're about to get wet," Remus sighed. Peter looked a little scared. "You'll be fine," Remus told him.

They climbed into a boat with a red-haired girl and greasy black-haired boy. Remus looked for a paddle, but the boats had already set off on their own, sailing across the lake. Soon, everybody was soaked by the pouring rain. Remus shook his head, scattering water everywhere. "Sorry," he apologised when the greasy boy shot him an annoyed glare.

They disappeared into a tunnel, until finally, the looming castle that was Hogwarts appeared. There were a lot of awe-filled "ooooooooh"s from the other students, all staring up at the enormous, brightly lit building.

The first years and the giant soon reached the harbour, and helped each other out of the boats. Peter, who was still staring transfixed at the castle, slipped and the boat rocked. The girl and boy jumped out instantly, but Remus was left struggling with Peter in the boat, which soon capsized sending both of them into the murky water.

Remus broke to the surface, gasping for breath, and grabbed the giant's massive hand, which was so big, Peter reached it too.

"Thanks, um…" Remus started, trying to ignore the two boys he had met earlier, who were now guffawing loudly at him.

"Call me Hagrid," boomed the great man, plopping them both onto the ground, where Peter collapsed, spitting water from his mouth. His hair was plastered to his head, but he was giggling at Remus. Remus reached a hand to his own hair, and felt a long, sticky piece of seaweed. He tugged it out, smiling weakly.

Hagrid led the students up to the castle. They were all soaking wet from the rain, you could hardly tell the difference between the ones who had stayed in their boats, and Remus and Peter.

They finally reached the door of the castle, which was so huge, Hagrid could easily slip through like a small dog could through a normal-sized doorway. Hagrid knocked on the enormous panels, and the door opened.

0o0o0o0o0

Sirius had expected an impressive, grand Hogwarts Professor to greet them, but instead they were faced with a short, aged woman, whose cheeks sagged with deep wrinkles. She studied them for a moment, then took them into a huge hall. Sirius stared around in awe. It was a good thing that the teacher was walking so slowly, as all the students' moving was delayed in them staring around at the magnificent room.

They followed the old woman to a small empty chamber off the side of the Entrance Hall. When they had all assembled, she began to speak, in an old shaky voice: "Welcome to Hogwarts," she said. "My name is Professor Ailill, and I am deputy head of the school. The start of term feast takes place just through there-" she pointed a crippled finger over to the door at the side of the chamber "-but for now you will wait here until it is time for you to be sorted. Once you have been sorted, you will do everything within your house; you will sleep in house dormitories, eat at house tables and have lessons in your houses, though during free-time you will have a chance to communicate with students from other houses. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin."

Sirius had heard already that all you had to do to be sorted was sit on a stool with a talking had on your head, but some other students looked nervously at each other.

"Please wait while I announce your arrival to the Headmaster," said Professor Ailill, and she left the antechamber. Immediately, talking broke out among the new students.

They didn't have to wait long until Professor Ailill was back. "Come with me," she squeaked. The first-years assembled in a line, and followed the teacher through a wide corridor, until they reached another huge door. Mumbles of talking were coming from the other side of the door, and Sirius expected that this was where the other students were seated, waiting for them. He gulped. He had never felt so nervous in his life, but he still followed when the door opened and they arrived in the most splendid hall he had ever seen.

There were four very long tables that stretched from one end of the room to the other, each seating students from each house. The ceiling was non-existent. Instead he found himself gazing up into a half-mooned sky, dozens of stars glinting down at them. At the top of the hall was another table, seating the teachers, with the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore in the middle.

The first years came to a halt in front of the Sorting Hat, which, as Sirius had been told by his family, began to sing. Students stared in admiration as it tunefully sang its words to the school, but Sirius started to get bored. He wanted to be sorted.

When the song finished, everybody in the hall applauded, until Professor Ailill came forward again. "When I call your name," she said, "you are to come up here, put on the hat and wait for its decision."

She brandished a long scroll of parchment.

"Allen, Sophie," she called. A blonde girl who had been talking to an unenthusiastic Snape dashed up the front and shoved the hat onto her head. After a moment's pause, the hat shouted, "RAVENCLAW!"

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius took a deep breath then walked forward, aware that hundreds of eyes were fixed on him. He picked up the hat, and placed it carefully onto his head. "Another Black," the hat whispered in his ear. Sirius braced himself. "But what is this? It appears you have different views from the rest of your family. You don't mind half-bloods or less, and would get taunted if I placed you with the other Blacks. In that case, it better be…GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius leaped up excitedly, put the hat back on the chair and jogged to the Gryffindor table, where he collapsed with relief and was greeted by an ecstatic group of older students. _Gryffindor!_ He really was breaking the tradition. He smiled, and then saw that all the Slytherins, especially his cousin Bellatrix, and the Prefect Lucius Malfoy, had their eyes fixed on him with glares of rage. No Black went into Gryffindor!

"Booker, Samuel!"

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat exclaimed.

"Cherry, Elissa!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Crius, Gareth!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Sirius watched as more and more students ran to their house tables. Maria Dagon went to Slytherin; Emily Dolittle came to Gryffindor, along with Lily Evans, the red-haired girl who had been sharing Sirius and James' compartment. Harold Featherly went to Hufflepuff, and Louis Fernstone went to Slytherin. After Ellie Fuller (Ravenclaw) and Daara Gunther (Gryffindor) came Alec Icarus, who went to Hufflepuff. After him came the second Gryffindor boy, Remus Lupin, the boy with the scarred face, who had thought he'd seen horses pulling the carriages, and had fallen into the lake.

Lupin didn't look at Sirius as he sat down, so Sirius ignored him as well, while Olivia Mole sat down at the Hufflepuff table. Peter Pettigrew was sorted into Gryffindor, and welcomed cheerfully by Remus Lupin. James Potter followed, coming to Gryffindor as he had expected, and Thomas Quintus was sorted into Ravenclaw. Then came Jill and Tamsin Rutherford, Terry Sands, Andrew Solan, and Severus Snape, who, to Sirius' expectations, was placed in Slytherin, and sat down next to Malfoy.

Finally Oliver Standon, Metella Turpin and Filius Zane were sorted into their houses, and Professor Dumbledore stood up from his seat. "Welcome, first years," he called in a loud voice. "And welcome back to our older students. I hope you have a pleasant year at Hogwarts this year! Now, before we eat, I have a few announcements to make."

Sirius listened intently. "May I remind you that no magic is to be used in the corridors."

"Spoil sport," James muttered.

"Don't worry, James," said Sirius. "I think that rule may be broken this year."

James grinned at him, and they both turned to listen to Dumbledore again.

"Also, there is a new threat this year. A Whomping Willow tree has been planted in the grounds, and nobody is to go near it, as it is prone to injure, or even kill some. You have been warned." Dumbledore was wearing a grave face, which then brightened as he said, "Now, let us eat!"

Sirius expected a group of House-Elves to burst into the Great Hall carrying plates of scrumptious food, but instead, the food appeared on the platters right in front of his nose. He instantly grabbed a chicken leg, a Yorkshire pudding and some gravy, and started to eat. This was the best food he'd had in a long time. He noticed Lupin studying the plates and cutlery carefully, and prodded James. "Peculiar little chap, isn't he?" he said.

James nodded, his mouth too full of food to speak. He took a huge gulp, and said, "Loopy… Loopy Lupin, that works!" as Lupin started to eat very delicately.


	3. Chapter 3 Formally Speaking

Chapter 3

Formally Speaking

Remus was the first to enter the dormitory. It was a room equipped with five beds, and, laid out on each one, was a set of Gryffindor uniform, and each person's trunk. Remus found his straight away – it was the bed nearest the door – and started to unpack. He took out his books, and placed them neatly on a nearby shelf; he stored his clothes in the chest of drawers that also acted as a bedside table; he placed his wand neatly on the shelf next to his books, and flung his pyjamas onto his pillow.

Afterwards, he slid the trunk under his bed, and then sat down cross-legged on top of the chest of drawers, anticipation brewing in his chest, ready for the next day. The other boys were unpacking, and Sirius Black finished first, shoving his trunk under his bed like Remus had done. He left the dormitory and headed down to the common room without a word. Remus wondered whether he should do the same. He didn't, and decided to get changed into his pyjamas.

He carried his pyjamas into the bathroom to change; he didn't want them to see how many scars he had. When all his clothes were off, he looked at himself in the mirror. He didn't know how the others would react if they saw all his dreadful sores. He even had a few burns where silver had accidentally touched his skin. He brushed his slightly damp hair away from in front of his amber eyes, and hoped that the others wouldn't compare the unusual eye-colour to his lycanthropy. Finally, he tore himself away from the mirror and slipped his pyjamas on.

When he arrived back in the dormitory, he noticed Peter climbing into bed, and he followed suit. It was, after all, quite late, and they had lessons first thing the next day. Remus closed his eyes and went to sleep.

0o0o0o0o0

The next day, in contrast to the previous, dawned with a sunny sky, and Remus had been the first in the dormitory to rise. He was already at breakfast, studying the timetable Professor Ailill had given him. His first lesson was Potions, with the Slytherin students. Remus had flicked through his textbook after buying it, and the theory didn't seem too bad, though the practical work appeared to be a little complicated.

Soon he found himself waiting outside the classroom, along with Peter. The two boys that kept laughing at him, James Potter and Sirius Black, were standing a few feet away, wands out. Remus knew that magic wasn't to be used outside lessons, but he also knew that he wasn't the one to interrupt. He would be better off leaving it to a teacher.

Professor Slughorn, however, a large man with a large belly, greeted everybody cheerily and didn't even notice the two rule-breaking boys as he welcomed the first years into his classroom.

The Potions room was very dimly lit, and around the edges were a large amount of flasks and vials, containing oddly coloured liquids, and pots with strange-looking ingredients.

He and Peter sat down on the front bench, and Remus took his heavy book out of his bag, as well as his new cauldron. Professor Slughorn made no hesitation in addressing them as soon as they were all comfortable.

"Your first year of Potions!" he said, speaking in a clear, deep voice and beaming. "Enjoy it while you can."

There were a few moans and grimaces from the surrounding students, but Remus was gripping every word, eager to start.

"I trust you have all brought your textbooks," said Professor Slughorn. There were a few murmurs of 'yes' and some nodding around the room. "Excellent. Please open them at page five."

0o0o0o0o0

After Potions came fifteen minutes of free time, in which Sirius and James collected their books for Charms, the next lesson. They had to ask one of the prefects where the classroom was, but they soon found it, and were the first to arrive.

"What do you reckon Charms'll be like?" Sirius asked James.

"Should be good," James answered, trying to peer through a small gap in the door. "I can't wait to learn some real spells. I think Transfiguration should be good. We've got that after Charms."

"I don't know, James," Sirius said. "I heard McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher, teaches theory in the first few lessons, and the first thing we learn how to do is turning a matchstick into a needle."

"Why do they teach us pointless things like that?" James muttered, rolling his eyes.

They were soon joined by the rest of the class, consisting of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. When Professor Flitwick, a tiny little man, let them in, they emerged into a large circular room with benches around the edge and a desk at the front. James and Sirius made their way to a place on the back row, somewhere in the middle.

Everybody sat down, and then they noticed that Lupin and his friend Peter were missing. The two arrived a little bit later, Lupin dragging Peter by the arm.

"Sorry," he panted as they arrived. "We got lost."

There weren't many places left in the room, just one next to Sirius and another next to a Hufflepuff girl called Elissa. Peter took the one next to Elissa, which left Lupin the space beside Sirius. Sirius budged along, not talking to Lupin as he arrived.

Professor Flitwick took the register, and everybody answered in the affirmative. The teacher almost toppled over when he came to Lupin's name, and Sirius wondered why. Then he looked around to see that 'Loopy' had blushed in embarrassment as he answered.

After Charms was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall was a middle-aged witch who was very stern, and, Sirius noted, not someone to cross. The problem was, Sirius loved playing tricks on people, so he'd have to be careful around the Transfiguration teacher.

An hour of studying and lectures went past and finally it was time for lunch. Sirius and James found themselves seated at the end of the long Gryffindor table, discussing their lessons.

"I can't believe McGonagall gave us homework!" James complained. "It's only our first day."

"She doesn't lay off work, even on first years," Sirius told him.

"I wonder what's up with Loopy Lupin," James said suddenly. Sirius looked up. Lupin was sitting a few spaces down the table, writing his essay instead of eating lunch.

"Little bookworm, that one," said Sirius. "I woke up really early this morning, and heard him reading a book. It was funny. He was mumbling the words as he read them."

James snorted into his pumpkin juice, spraying it everywhere. "Sorry, mate," he said, as he noticed the orange droplets running down Sirius's face.

"That's OK," said Sirius, wiping his wet face on his sleeve. Lily Evans sat down near them looking disgusted. Sirius saw the expression on James's face and tossed a bit of bread at him.

"Wha-?"

"Stop staring at that poor girl," Sirius gasped. "She's probably so scared of your ugly mug by now."

0o0o0o0o0

Remus finished the last sentence of his homework and packed up. He went outside and jogged across the short grass to sit by the lake. He stared out over the shimmering water, watching as fish came to the surface occasionally to collect insects that had settled there for a drink. He sighed. He didn't miss home, but he felt slightly uncomfortable at Hogwarts. He wished he had more friends than just Peter, but, being a werewolf, he supposed it was natural for people not to like him.

Why him? Why did he have to be a werewolf? He turned his head and glimpsed the Whomping Willow swaying, though there was no wind. He knew it had been placed there for him. Dumbledore had explained that. Underneath it was a passage that led to a house equipped with what he would need for his transformations. He wondered how the wolf would react to this new environment.

The bell rang, and Remus got up, ready to leave for his next lesson, History of Magic.

0o0o0o0o0

"OK, you try."

Sirius and James were sitting on two comfy armchairs in the common room that evening, attempting to recite the names and appearances of all the first years.

"In Gryffindor, there's you, me, Loopy," Sirius started, "and Peter Petticoat, or something like that."

"Pettigrew, you mean," James laughed.

"Yeah, him. He's that fat kid that hangs around with Loopy, but he doesn't seem very keen to, I might add."

"Yeah, I noticed that," James said. "Maybe we can talk to him later."

"Then there's Lily Evans, the red-head you fancy," Sirius remembered. He ducked as James attempted to wallop him over the head. "And there's Emily Dolittle, Evans's friend. Their other friend, Daara, the curly haired one."

"That's it for Gryffindor, isn't it?" James asked.

"Yeah, we have quite a small year-group," said Sirius.

Before they could say any more names, they were joined by Peter, who was alone.

"Hello, Peter," said James, holding out a hand. "James Potter at your service."

Peter shook the hand. "And you're Sirius Black, aren't you?"

Sirius faked a bow. "Indeed I am, Mr Pettic-grew."

"Stop trying to sound posh, it annoys me," said James. "It doesn't match your low IQ very well."

"Hey!" snapped Sirius, and he hit James's arm. "By the way, have you guys noticed how poshly Loopy speaks?"

"Poshly isn't a word."

James, Sirius and Peter jumped and turned to see Lupin standing right behind the sofa.

"Are you listening to us talking?" James growled at him.

"You mean eavesdropping on your conversation? No, I just heard you use a non-existent word," said Lupin. Sirius turned to James with raised eyebrows, indicating Lupin by flicking his eyes in his direction as he carried on. "Formally' would have been better than '_poshly_'," he explained.

"Do we care?" Sirius barked, angrily. "You might not have realised that a lot of people don't give a damn about lectures from smartarses like you."

Lupin looked taken aback, and left the common room, heading in the direction of the dormitory.

"Why do you like him, Peter?" Sirius moaned.

"I-I j-just met him on the train, a-and couldn't…"

"Shake him off, because you're too polite," James said, ending Peter's sentence for him. "You just need to get a little bolder. Don't worry, you can hang out with us now. We're not so boring."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "James, do you like pranks? I always play them on family members I don't like when they come to stay at my house."

"Me too!" James cried out. "I bought some dungbombs at Diagon Alley before I came. We could use them on someone."

"And I've got some exploding drops," said Sirius. "They look like tiny pieces of ice, and you put them under anything that someone's going to sit on, and they explode."

"That's great! I can't wait to see the effect they have on people," James shouted in awe.

"You might not have to," Sirius murmured, loud enough for James and Peter to hear.

"What do you mean?" Peter whispered back.

Before Sirius could answer, there came a bang from the direction of the boys' dormitory. James, Sirius and Peter raced up the stairs into their room, and found Lupin covered in black soot, cursing loudly.

"Watch your tongue, Loopy, or McGonagall will be after you," said Sirius, while James rolled around in fits of laughter and Peter sat down on the bed giggling.

"Black, you will regret this one day," spat Lupin, picking up his pillow to find the small droplets underneath, shattered into tiny pieces. He brushed them lightly off the sheet and climbed into bed, drawing the hangings around himself.

"Welcome to the Pranksters, Peter Pettigrew," said Sirius, folding his arms. "Me and James are proud to have you with us."

"It's 'James and I'," said a muffled voice. Sirius, James and Peter ignored him, and started to get ready for bed themselves.


	4. Chapter 4 Quidditch Experts

Chapter 4

Quidditch Experts

Remus blinked. Sunlight was streaming through the gap in his hangings. He pulled the curtain aside, got dressed, collected his books and left the dormitory. He crossed the common room, where several students were reading and talking, and crawled through the portrait hole. He hurried down the staircases and emerged into the entrance hall. He crossed the hall and walked through the doorway into the Great Hall, where people were having breakfast.

Seating himself at the Gryffindor table, he opened his Charms book and read through the required pages again and again, trying to remember the key points from the lesson on the previous day, as there was to be a test on the levitating spell. He thought it was fairly pointless, since they had only had one lesson on it, but all he cared about right now was passing the test.

Moments later, he spotted Black, Potter, and unfortunately, Peter, enter the Hall. Remus tried to hide himself behind his book, but the others would be able to tell who the only person studying was.

"Morning _Loopy_," said Black, emphasising the nickname. Remus ignored him and reached into his bag, pulling out a moon chart. He studied it carefully, and, as he had expected, noticed that tonight was the full moon.

He finished eating breakfast, and soon found himself outside the Charms classroom again. When the rest of the class arrived, Remus made sure to seat himself as far away from the other boys as possible, and he sat down at the end of a row, next to a Hufflepuff boy called Alec Icarus, who didn't seem all that delighted to meet a very scarred person; Remus suspected he was squeamish.

Professor Flitwick handed out the tests, and Remus whizzed through his, remembering every fact he had learnt. He finished after only ten minutes, but tried to hide that fact so he could see where the others were up to. Very subtly he peered to the side and saw that Alec was only half way through, and had misunderstood one of the questions.

Across the classroom, Peter seemed completely befuddled by his paper, and was copying answers from Black and Potter, who were looking down, Remus was certain, at a hidden textbook that they were cheating from. If only there was a way to tell Professor Flitwick without them knowing it was him, those two would be in big trouble.

After another half-an-hour, Flitwick collected the papers in, and let them practise the _wingarium leviosa_ spell. By the end of the lesson, Remus and Lily Evans were the only ones who had managed it perfectly, however some people had managed to get their feathers to hover a few centimetres above the desk.

Charms was followed by Herbology, the lesson taught by Professor Ailill. After that came an hour of free time, which Remus used to complete his Herbology homework. He finished it very quickly, and headed out into the grounds again. He was about to sit down by the lake, when he spotted Hagrid and a large boarhound enjoying the sunshine outside Hagrid's hut. Remus strolled over casually, and Hagrid noticed him at once, a beam spreading across his face.

"Hello, Remus," he called, as Remus drew closer. "A little less wet terday, I see."

"Yes," said Remus, reaching the cabin and settling himself on the grass next to the dog, who got up and started licking his face.

"I see yeh've met Fang, then," Hagrid chuckled, his beetle black eyes gleaming warmly. Remus stroked Fang's head and managed to push him off. "So, how've yeh firs' days bin?" Hagrid asked kindly.

"Great!" said Remus. "I've managed to learn so much. I just took a test in Charms and I think I got most of it right. Potions is a bit difficult, though."

"Don' worry 'bout that," said Hagrid. "I could never do Potions meself."

"You were at school here?" Remus asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes, but I was expelled in me third year," Hagrid mumbled reluctantly. Then he whispered, "Don' tell Dumbledore tha' I've kept the pieces of me wand. Yeh're not supposed to do tha', see."

"I won't tell him," Remus said, smiling as he scratched Fang behind the ear. Remus noticed Hagrid open his mouth then close it again, as if hesitating to say something.

"Anything wrong, Hagrid?" he asked.

"Nah, it's all righ'," Hagrid muttered. "Yeh wouldn' want me teh say it."

"No, I don't mind. Go on," Remus prompted, though he had a slight feeling where Hagrid was going.

"Well, I was just gonna ask if yeh're all equipped for ternight," explained the giant.

Remus nodded, though he felt a bit worried.

"Yeh can get inter the passage under the Willow by prodding the twisted root with a long stick," said Hagrid. The bell for lunch rang. "Yeh better be orf," Hagrid added, and Remus got up. "Bu' if yeh need me, I'm always 'ere in my hut."

"Thanks, Hagrid," said Remus, and he walked away, back to the castle, waving a last goodbye to Fang.

0o0o0o0o0

"This is the afternoon I've been waiting for," said James at lunch, his timetable held up in front of his face. "Double brooms. I love Quidditch. It's the best game in the world."

"We know, James," Sirius sighed. "You don't stop going on about it."

"Have you flown before?" James asked him.

"Yep," answered Sirius. "I don't think I'm too bad as well, considering my family are a bunch of filthy cheaters when it comes to sport."

"I can't fly very well," Peter admitted.

"You just need practice," James told the small boy. "It's easy once you know how."

Soon they found themselves out in the grounds, with the rest of their year group.

"Can't wait to see Snivellus on a broom," Sirius hissed in James's ear.

"And this'll be something we can do better than Loopy," James replied happily.

The teacher, Madam Hooch, soon arrived. "Follow me, first years." She spoke quickly but clearly, like most Quidditch referees, James told Sirius. Everybody followed her to a more open area of the grounds, where a large number of brooms were laid out on the grass.

"Everyone choose a broom and stand next to it," said Madam Hooch. James was the first to choose one, but he looked disgusted at the state of the shabby broomsticks.

"How old are these?" he muttered. Sirius noticed that some of the twigs on the brooms had come loose, and the handles were chipped and battered.

"When I tell you, I would like you each to place your right hand over your broom, and say 'up'," Madam Hooch instructed. "Go."

"Up!" said James, and his broom flew straight into his hand.

"Well done, Potter," said Madam Hooch, noticing this. "You must be a natural."

It took Sirius a few tries, but soon he also had his broom in his hand. He looked at everyone else. Snape's broom didn't budge an inch, and Lupin's rose about a foot off the ground, but then seemed to think better of it, and landed again. Peter wasn't having any luck at all.

"Come on, Peter," James coaxed. "You've got to mean it. You have to feel true Quidditch spirit inside you, like you really want to be up in the air."

"But I'm scared of heights," Peter squeaked. Sirius gave a chortle, and carried on watching everyone else. After about twenty minutes, more or less half of the class were holding their brooms, Lupin among them. Madam Hooch went on to give her next set of orders.

"Now you will mount your brooms, and we will practise a bit of hovering."

Sirius was a little annoyed to see James correcting his hold on the broom, telling him that he would fall off just trying to hit a Bludger if he gripped the broomstick like that. Madam Hooch went along the rows of students, adjusting their positions.

"On my whistle, you will kick off hard from the ground, hover a few feet into the air, and then come back down by tilting your brooms forward slightly," she said when everybody was correct.

Sirius noticed a few nervous-looking students, but James was grinning confidently. Peter, on the other hand, was shaking already. "Just relax," he murmured to his friend. Peter dropped his shoulders and stopped trembling so hard.

The whistle sounded, and Sirius pounded the ground with his right foot. Soon he was in the air, and he managed to control his broom almost perfectly, holding it horizontal to let it float in mid-air while he watched the others.

James had managed to soar a little higher, and was now showing off by sitting sideways on his broom, and then letting it do a back-flip in the air.

"Mr Potter, stop that right now," snapped Madam Hooch. James grunted, and righted his broom again.

Peter was having a little trouble getting his broom to hover. Every time he kicked off, he got a foot into the air, then decided it was too frightening and came back down.

Lupin seemed steady on his broom, as well as Snape, but some others in the class seemed too anxious even to kick off.

"Peter, you're definitely meant to be in Gryffindor," said Sirius. "You're braver than some people here."

Peter looked reassured by this, and managed to drift upwards to Sirius's height. Sirius told him how to make the broom come down, and they landed back on the ground together.

When everybody had flown a little, Madam Hooch blew her whistle for silence. "Now, I'm going to let you fly about a bit, so listen carefully," she said. "Kick off just as you did there, but this time you can go forwards as well as up. Going forward is easy once you know how. All you have to do is put your weight forward. Don't fly too far away. Once you've gone forward you can try flying left, right, up and down, by steering the broom in the direction you want it to go. All right?"

There were some excited nods from the class, and Sirius stamped on the ground again. He flew a few feet up, then pushed himself forward slightly, and the broom soared across the grounds. It was much better than he had ever done before. He turned left and wheeled around, then tilted his broom back a bit to let himself hover, before bringing himself back to the class.

Peter was flying around in circles over where the class had been practising, trying not to stray too far away, and James was zooming about, weaving around other people and making sharp turns that, when the other students tried to imitate, ended up in them flat on their backs.

Lupin had decided to glide a safe distance away from everyone else, and was trying out different speeds and directions. Once he even managed to loop-the-loop in mid-air, which he came out of looking surprised. James rolled his eyes and, making sure Lupin was watching, repeated the movement at least ten times.

"Hey, Sirius!" he called. "Chuck that pinecone a little ahead of me."

Sirius spotted a pinecone on the ground and he swooped down to scoop it up. Then he hurled it in the direction of the air a few feet in front of James's broom. James sped towards it, leaning forwards to pick up speed, and, as the pinecone began to fall, he made a perfect dive and caught it easily in his left hand.

Sirius clapped. "You'd make a good Seeker, James," he shouted.

"Thanks, Sirius," James responded. The whistle blew again, and everybody joined Madam Hooch back on the ground.

"Well done, all of you," she said. "And don't forget to attend this lesson again on Friday morning."

All the students dropped their brooms where they had found them, and headed back up to the castle.


	5. Chapter 5 Newfound Friendship

Chapter 5

Newfound Friendship

"How fun was that?" Remus heard Peter cry when everybody was back in the Entrance Hall. "I can't wail until Friday!"

"Me neither," James answered. "I wish first years were allowed their own brooms, though."

Remus followed them back up to the dormitory, and he collected his books for History of Magic. As he moved to the door, he noticed that James and Sirius made no signs of gathering their belongings, but had instead taken off their shoes and socks and were sitting on their beds.

"Aren't you two coming to History?" Remus asked them.

"Why bother?" James replied. "Who wants to do boring History after Brooms?"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed.

"Suit yourself," Remus sighed. "Peter, are you coming?"

"I…I'm going to stay with J-James and Sirius," Peter said quietly.

"Atta boy, Pete," said Sirius, thumping Peter on the back. Remus took one look back and headed to the first floor for History of Magic.

0o0o0o0o0

By the end of the lesson, Remus had managed to finish all the work set, the remainder of which, most people had been given for homework. But he was free of work this evening and could spend the time relaxing in the common room.

When he entered, he saw James, Sirius and Peter all leap to their feet. "What did Binns say about us?" Sirius asked.

"I told him you were in the Hospital Wing," Remus said. James and Sirius looked at each other in amazement. "_You_ lied to a teacher?" asked James.

"Yes," Remus replied stiffly. _Because if you got into trouble, you'd blame me_, he added silently.

"Hey, Loop…um…Remus, we were thinking," said Sirius. "Do you want to sit with us in Astronomy tonight? Apparently it's pair-work, and Peter needs a partner."

Clearly it was only Sirius who had been thinking this, as both James and Peter seemed shocked.

"I'd love to," said Remus. "But I… I'm not going to be in Astronomy. I … I have to go home. My m-mum's ill and I have to go home and see her."

"Oh, OK," said Sirius. It didn't seem to bother him, though.

Remus whipped a book out of his bag and sat down on one of the armchairs to read. Of course, he had been lying about his mum, but it was the best excuse he had. He hadn't thought much about Astronomy nights. It would be easy enough slipping out on normal nights while the others were asleep, or so he hoped, but when they noticed that he wasn't there during Astronomy, they might start to wonder.

0o0o0o0o0

Later that evening, Remus left the common room alone and headed down to the Entrance Hall, where Madam Pomfrey, the matron, was waiting for him. She led him all the way to the Whomping Willow, and poked the twisted root with the stick, causing the tree to become still. Remus followed her through the passage, and they eventually arrived at the shack. There was a bed, a wardrobe and an armchair in the main room.

"When your transformation is finished, please remain here and wait for me to collect you," Madam Pomfrey chirped. "Right, I'll see you in the morning."

Remus listened to her leave, then, when he was sure he was alone apart from the one spider in the corner of the room, he carefully took off his clothes. He opened the wardrobe and stored them inside, then crept over to the bed and sat on it, waiting, watching the moon rise slowly.

He didn't have to wait long. Soon, the faint clouds covering the full moon moved aside and the whole room was bathed in silver. Remus felt himself go rigid, and he slipped onto the floor, where he knelt on all-fours, panting. He whimpered in pain as he felt his bones reshape themselves, twisting and curving into a wolf skeleton. His nose and mouth began to lengthen, and grey fur sprouted all over his body. Remus screamed as the pain became excruciating, and soon the wolf took over, replacing his human thoughts with its own.

Remus woke up later, and groaned in pain. It had been a terrible night. He had known the wolf wouldn't like this new place, and the proof was all around him. It had knocked the wardrobe over, torn apart the covers on the bed, and had flung the chair across the room. Remus winced as he saw that he was coated in blood from the old scars that the wolf had reopened, and new ones it had just created. Most areas of the floor were spattered red as well, and there were a few chunks of fur scattered here and there.

Remus sat in the middle of the floor, making wolf-like whining noises, until he heard footsteps. He tried to get to the wardrobe to reach for his clothes, but his joints were too stiff. He managed to wrap the broken duvet around his body to save himself the embarrassment of Madam Pomfrey seeing him like that.

Madam Pomfrey emerged through the wooden door and gasped at what she saw. Remus instantly burst into tears, holding the blanket tighter around him as he sat there on the floorboards. She moved over to him, looking very concerned, brushing the hair out of his eyes.

"Oh, Remus," she sighed. "I've never seen a case this terrible."

Remus carried on sobbing, but his wounds stung like anything. Madam Pomfrey drew back the cover and moved her wand over the scars, quickly sealing them. When she was finished, she helped Remus up and he grabbed his clothes from inside the fallen wardrobe. He wrapped his cloak around him, carrying the rest of his garments in his aching arms, and Madam Pomfrey helped him stumble up through the dark tunnel, and then led him through the grounds up to the castle.

Soon they were safely in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey took Remus to a ward that was isolated from the main ward, and gave him a pair of pyjamas to put on. Remus accepted them with gratitude, and untied his cloak. Then he changed into the pyjamas, careful not to damage any part of the newly sealed skin.

Madam Pomfrey gave him a potion to drink, telling him that it would help stifle the pain and would also prevent any more blood loss.

He climbed into bed, letting his tiredness take over and was asleep within ten minutes.

0o0o0o0o0

Sirius yawned, and stretched his arms. He looked at his watch. It was seven o'clock, and late enough for him to get up. He grabbed his towel and clothes, and went to have a shower. Unfortunately, as he turned the tap on, he slipped over and was sent falling to the floor, the toes on his right foot smashing painfully into the wall. Sirius swore quietly and sat up. His foot was bleeding. He'd have to leg it down to the Hospital Wing.

Quickly, he dressed himself, and tried putting some weight onto his injured foot. "OUCH!" he yelled, finding that the pain was too much to bear. But he didn't cry. Sirius Black never cried.

He hopped across the bathroom floor on his left leg, and turned the door handle. He slid down the banister of the stairs, his wounded foot dripping blood everywhere, and headed into the common room.

He didn't know how he had managed it, but soon he had reached the Hospital Wing. "Madam Pomfrey?" he called cautiously. "Hello?"

The nurse appeared shortly, and, spotting his foot, hurried back into her office to fetch a goblet of something that was smoking and smelt like vomit. She made Sirius drink it, after which he was retching from the terrible taste, and then he let her fix his toe. It still ached when he tested it.

"Stay here for a bit," Madam Pomfrey said. "The pain will soon wear off."

She moved away again, back into her office, as Sirius settled himself on a bed. He was quite happy that she was letting him stay. Hopefully he'd be able to miss at least half of Potions. As he was thinking cheerfully to himself, he heard a call from a separate ward. Wait a minute. That was Remus's voice. But it couldn't have been. Remus was home visiting his mother.

Sirius shook the thought away. It was probably another person who sounded like Remus. He shouldn't let it bother him.

0o0o0o0o0

"Are you sure you're OK?"

"Yes, I'm fine," said Remus as he gulped down his pumpkin juice on Friday lunchtime.

"You look terrible, mate," Sirius told him, sounding, for the first time, concerned.

"I promise I'm fine!" Remus snapped, feeling irritated, and he slammed his knife and fork down on the table, before rising from his seat and heading up to the dormitory. He jumped straight onto his bed and drew the hangings around himself. He lay down, throwing the blankets over his head, and, for reasons he himself did not know, curled up and cried.

He wished he didn't have to lie to his friends. Of course, he wasn't fine at all, but he couldn't tell the others anything without also informing them of his lycanthropy.

"Remus?" James's voice echoed around the room, closely followed by Sirius's. "Remus?"

There was a brief moment of silence, then Remus heard the clatter of the curtain rails around him, and the blanket soon uncovered his coiled, trembling body.

"Remus, what's wrong?" Sirius asked him.

Without making eye contact, Remus answered, "M-my mum's r-really ill. I don't think she's g-going to make it."

Remus caught a glimpse of Sirius turning to James with a _what-do-we-do?_ look on his face, before he said, "Don't worry, Remus. I'm sure everything'll be OK."

The werewolf nodded apologetically, and tried to shorten his sobs.


	6. Chapter 6 Loyal Friends

Chapter 6

Loyal Friends

About a month later, Sirius found that he was the last person to wake up. It was a Saturday, at least, but he didn't want to miss the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. He quickly dressed into all the red and gold clothes he could find, and made his way down to breakfast. When he reached the Great Hall, he sat down next to James, who was wolfing down his food, obviously determined to arrive at the Quidditch stands early in order to find the best seats.

Opposite James sat Remus, whose head was buried in an enormous book about Quidditch, but he closed it when Sirius arrived.

"Good morning, fellow Gryffindor," he said cheerily.

"You're unusually happy today," Sirius commented, pouring some cornflakes into a bowl. Remus buttered a slice of toast and handed it to him. "Cheers," said Sirius, taking the toast and munching it quickly.

"Well, I'm mainly looking forward to today's match," said Remus. "According to this book, we can judge who's bound to win by observing some obvious factors."

"What?" Peter asked, seeming quizzical.

"Listen," Remus went on. "You have to think logically about these things. Like who has better tactics, more able players and newer, or better quality brooms, and try not to base it on your own opinion."

As they made their way out to the grounds, Sirius, James and Peter started thinking about some of the factors Remus had mentioned.

"Gryffindor has Toby Hammerston," Sirius said finally. "He's a strong player, and he's been on the team for _ages_. And the captain of our team is Jack Terries. He's the best Seeker ever."

"But Slytherin has Oliver Splint," James pointed out. "He's their best player in about fifty years."

"Hang on," said Sirius. "Remus said to think about brooms. Hammerston's got a Cleansweep 30. That's pretty good."

"I suppose it is better than Splint's broom."

"And I heard a third year Hufflepuff student say that Gryffindor had better tactics," Peter piped up. Sirius raised his eyebrows. "We'll just have to wait and see," he said, just as they came to the Quidditch stands. They found seats quickly, as most students were still in the castle, and waited until more people filled up the seats surrounding them. Soon nearly everyone had arrived, Dumbledore among them. It was time for the match to start.

"Gryffindor off to a great start, seizing the Quaffle instantly," shrieked the commentator. "Hammerston passes to Berry, passes back to Hammerston. No, hang on. Splint intercepts, passes to Riley, who tears up the pitch, shoots and… goal blocked by Gryffindor's Alexander Reeves."

"Yes," Sirius cheered, as the Slytherins hissed in disgust.

"Hammerston with the Quaffle again. He ducks a Bludger, shoots and … SCORES! Ten points to Gryffindor."

James leapt out of his seat, as if the match was already won, but Remus calmed him down, whispering, "There's still a lot more time to go."

After half an hour, Slytherin had scored twice, but Gryffindor was ahead by thirty points. At that moment, Sirius spotted a speck of gold, fluttering just in front of him next to the stands.

"Here! It's over here!" he called, waving at Terries. The Seeker's bored face turned to look at him, and his expression changed to an air of pleasure as he saw what Sirius was pointing at. "Thanks!" the Seeker shouted as he rushed past, close on the little Golden ball's tail. Terries stretched out a hand. Sirius could barely concentrate on the commentary then… _snatch!_ The match was over in a whirl of red and gold.

"Gryffindor wins 190 points to 20," bellowed the commentator happily. Sirius leapt up in the air with James, both yelling to their hearts' content, hugging each other ecstatically.

"I knew we'd win," Remus said, beaming, but still he remained seated.

"Is this why you looked so cheerful earlier?" Sirius asked slyly.

"Of course," said Remus. "I wouldn't have told you about working it out using logic if I thought we were going to lose."

"I wish I was on the Quidditch team!" James exclaimed.

"Big surprise," Sirius said sarcastically. "I've been able to see that since I first met you."

After the match, Sirius, Remus, James and Peter headed back up to the castle, separated from the rest of the crowd, but as soon as they reached the Entrance Hall, they caught sight of a lone Snape.

"Perfect," Sirius remarked, adding a little run to his steps. The others chased him, seeming a bit puzzled. "Look who it is."

"_Snivellus!"_ James added, as if to increase the suspense.

"Potter, Black, what are you doing here?" Snape spat as they came to a halt in front of him.

"_We were just off to clean the toilets in the boys' bathroom_." Sirius snapped back. "What does it look like, Snivelly?"

Snape drew his wand, and, instinctively, so did James and Sirius. "Give James and I a reason to attack you," Sirius growled.

"No," Remus said, holding out his hand. Sirius looked slightly annoyed, but then brightened when Remus lowered his hand and added, "It's 'James and me.'"

"_Rictusempra!"_ Snape yelled. James collapsed on the floor, apparently under a tickling sensation. "Who's been studying hard?" said Sirius in a slightly patronising way. However, he didn't notice that Remus had whipped out his own wand, until the scarred boy had bellowed, "_Petrificus Totalus!_"

Snape's limbs snapped to the sides of his body. He swayed a bit, then overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move.

"That was bloody fantastic, Remus!" Sirius exclaimed, awestruck. At the same time, Remus lifted the tickling charm off James.

"_Standard Book of Spells: Grade one;_ Chapter fourteen," Remus recited, as the four boys left Snape lying alone in the middle of the Hall. When they arrived back in the common room, they emerged to a whole room full of celebrating Gryffindors.

"Hey, Remus, have you ever tried Butterbeer?" Sirius asked, grabbing a bottle for himself. "You deserve one, after that spell you did on Snape!"

"Thanks," Remus said, as Sirius passed him a goblet of the liquid. However, as soon as Remus touched the silver, he pulled his hand back suddenly, and the goblet fell to the floor. Sirius saw that Remus had managed to obtain a sore, red burn, although the goblet had been freezing when he had touched it.

"What happened?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, I …erm… react to a substance in this particular type of silver," Remus mumbled, though rather hastily. Sirius shrugged, and handed his friend the glass bottle. "Drink it straight from here, instead. You really should try this stuff."

"No, thank you, Sirius," said Remus, almost whimpering, his eyes glazed with tears. "I need to go and sort out this burn."

He was off before Sirius could say anything else, but Sirius was interrupted from staring after him by a jubilant James, who sprayed Butterbeer everywhere as he jumped up and down.

Remus bent over the sink, carefully dabbing burn potion onto his hand. It stung very painfully, but soon the wounds began to heal. Remus tramped into the dormitory and kicked off his shoes, then stored his potion carefully back in his trunk.

He felt angry at himself. He had almost let slip about his condition, but he wondered how long it would take before James and Sirius, stupid as they seemed, would find out that he was a werewolf. Even though those two never studied or bothered to do work, they were very bright, and could pick things up very quickly. Remus was sure they'd be petrifying Snape at every opportunity now that he'd shown them how to do it.

Remus couldn't sleep, so he listened to the euphoria going on downstairs, until Sirius, James and Peter finally emerged in the dormitory way past midnight. He was about to try and sleep when he heard Sirius whisper, "Have you guys noticed anything strange about Remus?"

Remus tried hard not to gasp; Sirius was still talking. "He goes of to see his mum so often," he went on, "every month or so, but why do that if she just stays in the same condition?"

"He's only gone to see her three times," James replied, and Remus heard the rustle of the bespectacled boy's sheets as he climbed into bed. "But what I think is strange is how he uses his own cutlery, and never touches the school goblets and plates."

"Yeah, that's because he reacts to something in the silver, or something like that," Sirius explained. "He burnt himself on a goblet today."

"Really?" Peter whispered. "Is he OK?"

"I think we should let him sleep," said Sirius. "He's so thin and peaky all the time, he could use the rest."

"Actually, that's another weird thing about him," said James. "He always looks ill."

"I know! Maybe the thing about his mum is just an excuse," Sirius gasped. "I think I heard him in the hospital wing when I was in there last, and he was supposedly at home."

"Hey, you two," Peter's voice murmured. "Have you noticed that he has loads of sleepless nights? I think he has a lot of nightmares."

"Yeah, he's always moving and making weird noises in his sleep," James added.

"And those scars he has," Sirius continued. "He's got so many… hey do you think he's abused at home?"

"We mustn't start making… whatever Remus calls it… assumptions… about him," James told them. "We're his friends. We should stick by him."

Remus breathed softly in relief. He knew his friends would never abandon him, how loyal they could be.

"Poor chap," said Sirius. "If we hadn't come along, he wouldn't have any friends."


	7. Chapter 7 Defeating the Dark Lord

**A/N: I think this chapter may need a bit of fine tuning. Please tell me if you have any suggestions to make it better.**

Chapter 7

Defeating the Dark Lord

One morning in late November, while Sirius was devouring a plate of scrambled eggs, Remus thudded down opposite him with a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Look at this!" Remus said loudly. He used the newspaper to push away the silverware, and then flattened it out on the surface of the table. Sirius scanned the headline.

_DARK WIZARD VOLDEMORT GATHERS FOLLOWERS_

"Voldemort?" asked James. "Isn't he the one responsible for that death a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yep, he's top of the 'most wanted' list now," Sirius answered grimly, "the most dangerous wizard there is."

"Who'd want to follow him, though?" Peter murmured, staring at the picture of the Dark Lord. Red eyes glinted dangerously above a snake-like nose. "He's hideous!"

"Some people think he's the way forward," Remus informed them. "Listen: _Lord Voldemort, who has now committed the crime of the murder of seventeen magical people and has not been caught, is now gathering followers to help him on his quest to purge the wizarding world of everything but Purity and the Dark Arts. These followers are calling themselves Death Eaters, and are frequently using unforgivable curses. They are also convincing younger generations to join, and this 'Dark Arts Trend', as the Ministry is calling it, may now have spread to some of the students of Hogwarts, most likely from Voldemort's old house, Slytherin. We urge others of you to remember that Lord Voldemort is _very_ dangerous, and is not to be sought after, nor joined; likewise with his Death Eaters."_

"Hey, look, it says: _turn to page three for Voldemort's full profile_. Let's see ugly pictures of him!" said Sirius, having read aloud from underneath the article. He was about to turn the page when a pale, scarred hand slammed down on his.

"Sirius, this is important," Remus insisted. "If he's somehow talked students into joining him, we have to keep our eyes open."

"Remus, most Slytherin students are as thick as Hagrid is tall," said Sirius, almost casually. "They don't stand a chance against us, especially _your_ magic."

Remus flushed pink at the compliment, but carried on. "Yes, but if Voldemort, or his Death Eaters are teaching them the Dark Arts, they'll soon be cursing everyone they see in no time. That's why I think we ought to pay really close attention in DADA classes, just in case."

"But we're not learning anything useful yet," James protested. "All we're learning is how to ward off dangerous creatures like vampires and werewolves."

Sirius noticed Remus flinch very slightly, but didn't point it out. Instead he said, "How are we going to learn to defend ourselves then?"

"Only one way," Remus concluded. "Reading."

"Ugh," James groaned. "Does everything in your life revolve around books?"

"Books can be useful, you know," said Remus. "What if I read and you three take notes?"

"I'm not taking notes!" Sirius objected. "Make Peter do it!"

"Are there even any books on how to defeat dark wizards?" James asked, ignoring Sirius.

"Oh, yes," Remus replied. "In the Restricted Section, that is. Of course, no teacher would sign to let first-years borrow that kind of book, which means we'll have to sneak some out."

"_You,_ Remus Lupin, are willing to break rules!" Sirius shouted in disbelief.

"Keep your voice down," Remus breathed. "We still need a way to get in there."

"I think I can help you there," said James.

--

Remus, Peter and Sirius rushed up to the dormitory following James's lead, and James dived straight to his bed. He reached underneath it and heaved his trunk out, then he rummaged about for a bit until he brought out a silvery cloak-like object. "This arrived from my dad the other day. He said it could be useful."

"What on earth is that?" Peter inquired, scratching his head.

"_An Invisibility Cloak,"_ James and Remus answered in unison. Remus stuck out his hand. "May I?" he asked.

"Sure," said James, handing the Cloak over to the lycanthrope. Remus studied it carefully. "Perfect," he decided finally, offering it back to James. "Commence operation Raid the Restricted Section of the Library!"

Remus's quill scratched at his parchment as he etched down the last words of his homework. He looked up. Sirius, James and Peter were nowhere to be seen (they were probably in the dormitory planning their raid), but he did notice a red-haired girl sitting nearby, proofreading her work as well.

"Hi," he called out, slightly nervously. The girl looked up.

"Hey," she said. "You're Remus Lupin, aren't you?"

"Yes," Remus answered. "Are you Lily?"

"Lily Evans," Lily nodded. "I see you've decided to do your homework as well, unlike most people in our year."

"I know," said Remus, swivelling around so he could face her. "It seems all of the first-years are excessively lazy! Except for you, and me I suppose," he added, scratching the bridge of his nose in an embarrassed way.

"I heard that that Sirius never does any of the work that's set," Lily said, after a small pause.

"You're right," said Remus, "And James doesn't, either. I usually find myself doing their homework."

"How do you hide your handwriting, though?"

"Just a simple switching charm," Remus shrugged.

"You've read that part?" Lily exclaimed. "I thought nobody read ahead except me!"

"I read most of my books before we got to Hogwarts," Remus explained.

"Me too!" said Lily, changing a word on her parchment.

"I'm always reading," Remus said. "Sirius says it's hard to find me with my head out of a book, let alone out of the library."

"Well, I'm not that much of a fan, but I do read every night. My friend Daara, who only reads _Witch Weekly_, doesn't seem to understand."

"I don't know why! I think reading's fantastic. It completely widens your knowledge!"

"Exactly. And it's interesting," Lily added.

"Maybe some people don't have the concentration span to read," said Remus.

"Do you read fiction?" Lily asked, clearly interested in Remus's hobby.

"I read everything," Remus answered.

"Hey, are you staying at Hogwarts over Christmas?" Lily asked, packing up her parchment and rising from her seat. "I am. Anyway, I need to dash off now. See you later, Rems – if you don't mind me calling you that."

"Not at all," said Remus, waving his hand dismissively.

"Cool," said Lily, standing up.

"You know, Lily," Remus said, slightly hesitantly. "I think you and I could be great friends."

"Me too," Lily said. "You're not like that bunch of buffoons that share your dormitory."

"See you later." Remus rose as well, collecting his books as well and waving a hasty goodbye to Lily as she left for her dormitory, and he departed up to his. When he opened the door, he found Sirius, James and Peter sitting on his bed, scanning a couple of pieces of parchment and a newspaper.

"Hey, Remus! Get over here," said James, patting a place on the bed that wasn't covered in paper. "We're devising a plan of action."

"But we already have one!" Remus opposed. "We're going to read up in the library to learn how to defend ourselves."

"No, that's _your_ part," Peter explained, wrenching his neck around to face the startled boy in the doorway. "We changed the plan a bit."

"What?"

"Look, come here and you'll understand," James urged, hitting the spot on the bed harder than before.

Remus began to make his way over to his friends, but as he neared the bed, he tripped over a large book, flew through the air and landed splayed out with his head in Sirius's lap and the rest of his body on the newspapers.

"Bugger," he said simply.

"Tut, tut, Remus," Sirius smirked in a high-pitched voice. "Whatever will we do about your language?"

"You bloody swear more than me!" Remus growled, twisting himself so he could sit up in between Sirius and James.

"It's true, actually, Sirius," said Peter. "The only times we've heard Remus swear are when you put exploding drops on his bed, and just now."

"What about that time about a month ago… wait, exactly a month ago, when Remus spilt his potion all over the floor and Slughorn marked it '0'," James suggested.

"Can we get back onto the subject of Voldemort?" Remus asked, his voice sounding harsh. "Or have you got more to say regarding my tongue?"

"Retarding?" Sirius tried to repeat.

"RE-GAR-DING!" the werewolf roared, spelling out each syllable very slowly. James and Sirius turned to each other and whistled.

"Remus, Remus, since when have you fumed so badly?" asked Sirius.

"I think he's actually a girl and _she's_ got PMT," James teased. Remus had had enough. He leapt off the bed, sauntered angrily across the dormitory, slammed the door and stormed down to the common room, where he sat in a squashy armchair by the fire to contemplate.


	8. Chapter 8 Detention on the Full Moon

Chapter 8

Detention on the Full Moon

"How's Remus today?" Sirius asked, concerned, as James entered the Great Hall the next morning. They found places at the table and sat down, pouring themselves cereal.

"Still pretty cheesed off," James confirmed, swallowing a mouthful of cornflakes.

"Did he let you tell him the plan?" questioned Peter, who was hungrily munching through an extra-large bowl of chocolate puffed rice.

"No," sighed James. "He started ranting about how nobody understood him, and he chased me into the corridor still yelling his head off, and then Professor McGonagall caught him and put him in detention."

"I never thought I'd see the day," Sirius said, eyebrows raised.

"Speaking of detentions, how many have you two got now?" asked Peter. "Five each, at least?"

"Eight," said Sirius, feeling proud rather than shameful. "James and I decided to host a competition to see who had the most by the end of our seventh year."

"Did you take into account the matter of expulsion?" Peter asked matter-of-factly.

"When did you learn to speak so poshly… oops I mean _formally_," Sirius mocked, and the other two burst into fits of laughter. Sirius joined in, until someone knocked him over the head with a newspaper. He swivelled his neck to see Remus standing above him.

"Heya, Remsy," he said, offering Remus a slice of buttered toast. "What's up?"

Remus muttered something inaudible and plonked himself down on the seat. He munched his toast very roughly, but did look vaguely grateful for Sirius's offer.

"Calm down, Remus," James advised, shoving a glass of pumpkin juice into Remus's free hand. Remus slurped it thirstily, then opened his newspaper and hid his face behind it. Sirius shot a confused glance at James, who just shrugged. Sirius decided he'd leave Remus alone; usually he'd have fun taunting his strange little friend, but today he'd just have to tease Peter instead.

"OK, let's recap the plan one more time," Sirius announced, trying to sound natural. "Remus is researching in the Library and reading newspapers with the help of James's cloak."

"I'm taking notes," Peter put in.

"And Sirius and I will be spying on Slytherins that look suspicious, while also practicing defensive spells."

"Using books, of course," said Remus, lowering the newspaper so he could view them all.

"Unfortunately, yes," James sighed, his head lowered. Before anyone could say more, Slughorn's voice sounded behind them.

"Mr Lupin," he addressed Remus. "Come to my office at six o'clock this evening for your detention."

"Yes, sir," Remus answered solemnly and Slughorn plodded away.

"Hey, don't worry, Remus," Sirius told the smaller boy. "Detention's fine. Tedious, yes, but nothing you can't handle."

But Remus had hidden behind his paper again. Sirius just shrugged and carried on eating.

--

Remus's wrist ached. He'd spent two hours scrubbing mucky cauldron bases, and was becoming weary.

"Getting dark, isn't it?" Slughorn would mutter from time to time, but Remus didn't listen. All he cared about was getting out of here and into his bed. Except…

"Fu…dge brownies!" he yelled suddenly.

"I assure you, Remus, these cauldrons haven't been used for cookery purposes," said Slughorn cheerily.

"Professor, you're aware of my lycanthropy, right?"

"But, of course."

"It's a full moon tonight!" Remus shouted, panicking.

"Now, now, Lupin. Don't fret," Slughorn advised. "What time does the moon rise?"

"Eight o'clock! I need to get out there NOW!"

"Off you go then," Slughorn prompted, not showing a care in the world. Remus grabbed his bag and rushed as fast as he could into the Entrance Hall. He heaved open the front door, head spinning with fear as he instantly spotted the moon behind the hills. His legs were working at full power but his body was aching, muscles beginning to expand, skeleton starting to change. But he was almost there. He could see the stick he used to prod the knot. True, it was halfway around the Willow, but he could get it in time.

Remus dived, reaching out with his hand, and felt it enclose around the long, thin object.

"You – could be – a seeker, Remus," he told himself through pained gasps. He swung the twig around and touched the loop in the trunk. The tree, which had been just about to hit him with its heavy branches, immediately stopped moving, and Remus leapt to his feet, sliding into the tunnel under than the Willow.

He crouched in the passage, panting, waiting. He couldn't move, but soon he was transforming, becoming the horrific monster he would never be saved from.

--

"Where's Remus? Shouldn't he be back by now?"

Sirius hadn't sat down since nine o'clock, the time when Remus was supposed to be back from his detention. He was pacing forward and backwards in front of the fire in the Common Room, and had been for the last half hour.

"Calm down, Sirius," said James. "I'm sure nothing's happened to him. Sometimes teachers keep students in detention longer than they're supposed to."

"I'm sorry, James," Sirius moaned, slumping down into an armchair. "Just… something tells me that he's in trouble."

"Since when have you and Remus been able to use telepathy?" asked James.

"Never mind," said Sirius. "Maybe I worry too much."

He raised himself from his seat and trudged up to the dormitory to go to bed. He lay down in his underwear, too tired to change into his pyjamas, and folded the covers over his arms. Closing his eyes, he tried to drift off, but every time he got even remotely close to falling asleep, his anxieties would return. Sirius decided he'd have to stick with counting dead Slytherins. It was going to be a long night.

When he woke the next day, however, Remus had still not returned. Sirius had woken to see rain pouring down outside, and his friend's bed completely empty, just the same as it had been when he'd settled down to sleep the night before.

Grabbing his shirt and trousers, and slipping them on as he marched down the stairs, he entered the Common Room and literally bumped into Lily Evans. They both toppled to the ground, to the giggles and whispers of Lily's annoying friends Emily and Daara.

"Oh, shut up," he mumbled, getting to his feet and offering Lily a hand. He pulled her up from the floor and she brushed herself off, silencing her friends with a glare. Suddenly he remembered: Remus said he'd spoken to Lily and they'd become 'quite close'. As far as Sirius was concerned, that could have meant the smaller boy fancied the redhead, but now was not the time to ask questions like that.

"Lily, have you seen Remus anywhere?" he asked.

"Sorry, Sirius," she apologised. "I haven't seen him since yesterday in our free time."

"OK, then," he muttered. Without any other words, Sirius pushed past the girls and out into the corridor of the seventh floor, but instead of heading to breakfast, he made a detour to the hospital wing. He walked over to Madam Pomfrey's office and rapped on the door. A moment later, the matron appeared. "Black, what can I do for you?"

"Sorry, is Remus Lupin here?" he asked. He almost thought, for a second, that he'd heard Remus's voice whimper from somewhere, but he dismissed the notion.

"I'm afraid not," answered Madam Pomfrey. "Now run along… before you injure yourself again."

Sirius nearly scowled at her, but he left the ward and was soon munching greedily on a plate of scrambled eggs.


	9. Chapter 9 Black Blackmail

**A/N: Preslashy chapter!!! I know it's rare for a boy of 11 to have a crush on someone, but you'll find out later, it's because of being a werewolf. I've decided they choose their mates as soon as they meet the right person.**

Chapter 9

Black Blackmail

Remus chewed the end of his quill, then jotted down a suitable word. He was sitting in the Common Room, a long piece of parchment in front of him, James behind, waiting and looking bored. It was three days since his eventful detention, and he was feeling much better.

"There you go, James," he said, and he flicked his wand so the letters changed shape. "That should get you a good nine out of ten at least."

"Thanks, Rem," James said, sitting up and reaching into his pocket. "Here's the chocolate I promised you."

Remus held out his hand and felt the foil wrapped bar fall into it. Without a moment's hesitation, he tore the foil away and began to tuck in.

"You really love your chocolate, don't you Rems?" Sirius observed as he emerged from the dormitory, remembering seeing his friend secretly eating the sweet brown food in bed.

"And what have you been doing up there on your own, Mr Black?" James addressed Sirius, in a teacher-like voice and getting to his feet.

"Nothing, Professor Potter, honest," Sirius answered, making his eyes as puppy-like as possible. Remus turned his head to look at the two taller boys. He couldn't help making eye contact with Sirius for a split second.

"Hey, Professor Potter!" the lycanthrope called, trying to take his mind off what he had just done. "You left your homework here."

"Why thank you, Mr Lupin," James said, sounding more and more like Professor McGonagall. He grabbed the parchment from Remus's hand, but then, snapping back to his real self, he retorted, "Hey, chocolate-boy, you got marks all over my essay!"

"Oh, sorry," said Remus, feeling himself blush.

"Aww, baby Remey's gone pink!" Sirius babbled.

"Stop it," Remus growled, picking up his wand threateningly. Though he would never attack his friend, he would have a damn good go at scaring him.

Sirius backed off, hands raised, as if he really was frightened. Remus raised one eyebrow – one of his greatest poses, apparently – and Sirius burst into laughter. Much as Remus tried to suppress his own, he could feel the sides of his mouth twitching. He was always amused by Sirius's idiotic guffawing.

Their eyes met again, and Remus stopped laughing. He turned his head away and blinked. Why was he so afraid to look his friend in the eye? Then he noticed how handsome Sirius really did look in the flickering orange firelight. No. He would stop this. He grabbed his books and hurried off upstairs without another glance backwards.

What was wrong with him? Why did he find Sirius so attractive? Sirius was another boy, for crying out loud! And Remus had only known him for the best part of three months. How was it possible to get that close to someone in that amount of time?

He closed the hangings surrounding him and buried his head in his pillow. He would try to forget about today for as long as he could.

--

November came and went, and soon the weather turned very cold. On the first day of the Christmas holidays, Sirius awoke to find that the dormitory was unseasonably light. He rolled out of bed and staggered sleepily over to the window, to find that it had snowed extremely heavily; the Hogwarts grounds were hardly visible beneath what looked like a good foot at least of the cold, white stuff.

Sirius shook away his tiredness at once, his face glowing with delight, ran straight to James's bed and jumped on him.

"Graah!" James yelled, sitting up and panting, trying to move his legs out from the dead weight that held them down. It took a few seconds for him to realise who it was that had leaped on to him and woken him up, but soon he had shouted "Sirius!" and attacked his friend with a pillow. Sirius fell onto the floor on his back, and rolled about like a puppy.

"I surrender!" he shouted in high-pitched voice. Before either of the black-haired boys had had the chance to do anything else, there was a groan from Remus's bed, and the smaller student slowly pushed his head out through the curtains with his usually-neat brown hair rumpled and half-closed amber eyes.

"What the hell are you two doing?" he moaned tiredly.

"Remus, my old friend!" Sirius exclaimed, bouncing up from the ground. He locked his eyes on a good spot on the other boy's bed, and readied himself to run.

"Remus, move…" James warned, as Sirius bounded towards Remus's bed and took off into the air. He made contact with the curtain and pushed through it, yanking it out of Remus's hand, and was met by a solid object. But the solid object was not Remus's bed. It was a foot, and Sirius was soon on the floor again.

Remus emerged again, grinning down at his achievement, and flung himself out of the bed.

"What's all this fuss about, Sirius?" he asked.

"It's snowed!" Sirius said happily, rubbing his sore chin. There were two gasps (and one sleepy murmur from Peter), and soon three boys were fighting to get a decent view out of the window. Remus won, threatening the other two with his legs, and Sirius didn't want to end up a victim of them again.

They all raced to get dressed, putting on winter cloaks, gloves and scarves over their normal clothes, and soon found themselves tumbling out of the front doors of the castle. Sirius dived to the ground and quickly made a huge snowball. He chucked it at Remus, and it hit his friend squarely on the nose.

"OI!" Remus bellowed, making his own snowball and throwing it at Sirius. Sirius dodged out of the way, and, to all three boys' pleasure, a blonde Slytherin student was passing at the time and it hit her on the shoulder. She turned, and Sirius's face dropped when he saw that she was one of the students he'd managed to avoid meeting for the whole term.

"Sirius Black!" she yelled, drawing her wand and marching right up to where he was. She grabbed his collar and yanked him up from the ground. She towered above him as he stared up into her blue eyes with a mixture of annoyance and fear. It was his cousin, Narcissa.

"Do you know that your mother was furious when you got sorted into that freak house?" Narcissa spat. Wiping droplets of saliva from his face, Sirius responded, "I pretty much gathered that, Cissy. But hey, she knew I wasn't going to be in Slytherin anyway."

"You are betraying our pure-blood heritage," said Narcissa. "Even if you are in Gryffindor, hanging around with these _things-_" she gestured to James and Remus, who were staring at her incredulously, "-is not going to do you any good."

"Stop talking like you're my mother, Cissy," Sirius said angrily. "Leave me alone."

He wriggled out of her grip and began to fall back onto the snow, but he was caught by a pair of safe arms that belonged to Remus. James came to his side as well, and they all stood up, trying to look threatening, though they only came as high as Narcissa's shoulder.

"You three better watch out," she hissed, and then sauntered quickly away.

"Bitch," Sirius breathed when she had left.

"Who was that?" asked James.

"That was my cousin, Narcissa," Sirius explained. "She's in her fifth year, and she's another one of my god-forbidden family. Actually, I'm lucky. My other cousin Bellatrix left Hogwarts a couple of years ago, and she would have been much worse."

They sat down in silence, fiddling awkwardly with the tiny snowflakes at their knees. Occasionally, one of them looked as if he was about to say something, but then closed his mouth, thinking the better of it.

After a while, they were interrupted by a loud voice behind them, shouting: "Order your Christmas gifts!"

"We better do that, actually," said James, getting up. Sirius and Remus stuck their hands up lazily, and James dragged them up from the ground. "Honestly, you two are lazy."

They made their way over to the sixth year who had called. He was standing with a clipboard, parchment and a quill, and was noting down people's requests and taking money from them.

"Do you think it's wise to hand money over to him?" Remus asked before they reached the student.

"Yes, look, he's a prefect," said Sirius pointing. "And if he keeps our money for himself, he'll be blackmailed, and trust me when I say that _Black_mail is never very nice."

A second-year girl gave a couple of galleons to the prefect, and hurried off, leaving space for the three first-years. Remus went first, hiding his writing from the other two and dropped a large amount of knuts into the older boy's hand. Sirius was next. He decided to get James a pack of self-shuffling playing cards, Peter a detachable cribbing cuff and Remus a mega-pack of chocoballs, as he knew that his friend loved chocolate. He reached into his pocket, pulled out five galleons and handed them to the prefect. After James's turn, they all dashed off again into the snow.

"I can't wait till Christmas," James said wistfully.


	10. Chapter 10 Babbling Beverages

Chapter 10

Babbling Beverages

Sleeping, Remus decided, was one of the best sensations in the world. Maybe it was even better than having one of those sugar-induced bouts of hyperactivity from eating too much chocolate after your transformation. Remus woke very slowly on Christmas morning, and decided to lie in his soft, warm bed, in the same position he had woken up in, for a bit longer. He'd been up all night on Christmas Eve, studying strange books for help on defence against Voldemort, but he wasn't having much luck.

Remus could feel that the air around him was quite cold, so he snuggled tight underneath the covers, until he heard the distant murmur of voices in the Common Room. He slowly climbed out of bed, to find Sirius's, James's and Peter's beds empty. Suddenly, he stepped on something that crumpled under his foot. It was a present. Looking around, he saw that this present was next to another, which was next to another…

He scooped them all up in his arms and hurried down to the Common Room. His friends were on the far side by the fire, sitting with their own gifts, though they hadn't opened any yet.

Remus passed a group of third-years and joined them, carefully placing his presents on the floor.

"Finally!" Peter said. "We've been waiting here for ages."

"Sorry," said Remus. "You could have woken me up, you know."

"I suppose we just didn't want to get kicked in the face again," sighed Sirius. "Anyway, enough of this. Presents!"

Sirius picked up the first present and began to unwrap it, so Remus did the same. It was fairly big, heavy and bulky, and he tore it apart to find a large leather-bound book. Turning it over, he read the golden words, _'Spells, Jinxes and Hexes to use on Slytherins.'_ The accompanying note read, _'To Remus, I know you like books and you were great attacking Snape last term, that I thought you might find this quite fun. Merry Christmas. From James.'_

He saw James eyeing him happily, and said, "Thanks, James. This'll do for some good bed-time reading."

"You're welcome, Rem," said James. Remus turned to the next present and unwrapped it easily. An enormous packet of chocoballs fell out.

"I LOVE whoever gave me this!" Remus shouted. He looked around, and saw Sirius smiling smugly. "Sirius Black, I am forever indebted to you," he croaked excitedly.

"Are you sure that's wise, Rem?" James asked.

"No," answered Remus. "But there is no way I could ever pay him back for something like this."

"Remus, it's a Christmas present," said Sirius. "You don't have to pay me back. Anyway, I'm about to unwrap yours."

Remus was about to pick up his present from Peter when he noticed what the pudgier boy was studying. It looked like the cuff of a shirt but there were some instructions that came with it.

"What is this?" Peter asked him. Remus took it and scanned the information. It was a detachable cribbing cuff, which was something you could attach to your shirt that would magically read your paper and give you the answers to questions.

"Sirius, you don't seriously expect Peter to actually _use_ this, do you?" Remus asked, trying to sound threatening and disbelieving.

"Well, Remus," said Sirius, and he crawled over to whisper something in the lycanthrope's ear. "Peter isn't exactly the brightest button in the box, so he could need something like this."

"I suppose so," Remus answered after a moment's hesitation.

--

It didn't take long for the rest of the Christmas holiday to roll by, and on the last day before the spring term would start, James successfully transformed the Slytherin corridor into green jelly, just for a last bit of festivity.

But it was soon over, and they were back at their desks, jotting down information from heavy textbooks and passing notes in lessons. Nothing was very eventful, apart from a Potions lesson that took place one particular Thursday. Slughorn paired people up with a person from the opposite house, and Sirius was paired with Snape.

As his partner added the flesh-eating slug juice to the cauldron, Sirius scanned the pages of the book, and read that if you stirred before adding the next ingredient, the potion would change from a sleeping draught to a babbling beverage. So all he'd have to do was slip in an extra stir while Snape picked up the rats' tails and then when it was time to test the potion on your partner, Snape would start speaking nonsense.

Snape bent away from the cauldron to collect the tails, and Sirius rapidly dunked the stirring rod into the potion, gave it one turn, and took it out again before Snape was even holding all of the pink worm-like objects.

The Slytherin dropped them into the potion, where they floated for a while then began to bubble.

When the potion settled down again, Snape peered into the pot.

"That's it," he said. "We're done. What colour does the book say it should be?"

Sirius stared into the liquid as well. It was a very dark green, and he checked it with the book. It was right.

"Very dark green," he said, trying not to smile at this wonderful prank. When everybody had finished making their potions, they brought them up to the front to test on their partners.

"Mr Lupin and Mr Sands, would you like to test yours first?" asked Slughorn, though it was more like an instruction than a question.

Remus raised the flask to his lips and took a swig. It took a while, but soon he had collapsed against the desk and was lying back on it, snoring softly. He woke up in a few minutes, just as a Slytherin fell asleep next to him.

"Mr Black and Mr Snape," Slughorn encouraged. Sirius gave Snape the flask and watched the confident-looking Slytherin student drink. But he didn't fall asleep.

"That didn't seem to work, Mr Snape," Slughorn commented.

"Rulusleebaglob!" Snape protested, covering his mouth when he heard what had come out. The entire class burst out laughing.

"Enough of this nonsense," said Slughorn. "Sorry, you two, but you get a zero."

Snape scowled at Sirius and muttered, "Blublingahah."

"Sorry, Snivellus? I didn't catch that?" James said, arriving beside them, his partner flat on the floor.

During their next lesson, which was charms, there was time to have conversations in the chaos of flying spells.

"That was a bit mean, Sirius," Remus said, though Sirius could tell he was stifling some laughter.

"Remus, it was brilliant!" James argued. "This term's been so uneventful, that's just what we needed."

"It's true, Rems," said Sirius, agreeing with James. "Lighten up a bit."

--

Remus munched hungrily on his cereal the next morning, waiting for the daily owl post which would bring him a copy of the Daily Prophet, which he'd subscribed to the previous week. Moments later, the owls arrived, laden with parcels and letters. A large long-eared owl swooped down and landed with a heavy _thunk_ in front of Remus. He dropped a few bronze knuts into the pouch it was carrying, and untied the newspaper from its leg. The owl flew off as soon as Remus began to read the paper, scanning the front page for any signs of Voldemort's activity.

"Anything new about… well, you know who?" Peter asked him warily. Remus tore his eyes from the paper in his hand.

"Not on the front page," he muttered. "Seems like there's no big news."

James, who had been listening to their conversation with utmost enthusiasm, narrowed his eyes and turned to face the Slytherin table. Remus and Peter followed his gaze to see that he was watching Snape in particular.

"I'm still not going to trust any of them," James said, as if that settled everything, and turning back to his cereal. But Sirius, who, unusually, had not yet said anything this morning, was tearing open an envelope marked by the Black family crest, a look of concern on his face.

"What's that, Sirius?" James asked, leaning over his shoulder to see.

"It's from my little brother, Regulus," said Sirius, his eyes dancing over the lines of writing in front of him, "and it's about Voldemort."

"What does he say?" questioned Peter.

"He says that mum and dad think Voldemort's got the right idea," answered Sirius, reading the letter more thoroughly. "But he's not sure what to do himself, so he's asking me for help. And I thought he didn't trust me."

Sirius grinned, his grey eyes lighting up.

"Sounds like he's wised up a bit from the git you made him out to be before," said James, taking the parchment from Sirius and re-reading it.

"We never got on that badly in the first place, to be honest," Sirius admitted, snatching it back and folding it up. "It's my parents and cousins who I hate with a passion. I'm amazed he wrote to _me_, though. I'd have thought he'd have written to Narcissa or Lucius Malfoy."

"You going to write back to him?" asked Peter.

"Of course. I'll tell him he can help with our defence programme if he likes," said Sirius. He unravelled a fresh piece of paper and took out his quill and ink at the same time.

"Careful," Remus warned, yanking the quill out of Sirius's hand. "What if he turns against you and blabs to your parents?"

"We'll just have to be careful," the other boy said defensively. "I'm still going to write to him."

Remus shrugged indifferently and gave Sirius back his quill. If any of this went wrong, it would be Sirius's fault, so nobody could blame him for not trying.

"Really," sighed Sirius, jotting down his brother's name, "you two, what are you turning into? You've both snatched things off me today."

"Observant of you," commented Remus, rolling his eyes.


	11. Chapter 11 The Price of Fame

Chapter 11

The Price of Fame

March unexpectedly brought a spell of good weather, and the four friends spent most of their time outside, completing their homework or playing hide and seek. One day, when Remus was standing behind a bush panting and James was running around calling out his name, three second years strolled past, their broomsticks over their shoulders.

"Phh, first years," snorted the Hufflepuff boy arrogantly. "So naïve, so innocent…"

"Hey, you're only a year above me," Remus argued back, jumping out of the bush and subtly standing on his toes in an attempt to match his offender in height. "Didn't you ever play games?"

"Yeah, I did, but I grew out of it within the first week," the student bragged.

"Leave him alone, Karl," said one of the Gryffindors, who Remus recognised as Frank Longbottom. "They're just young."

Remus huffed in offence at the statement; however good Frank's intentions were, what he was saying didn't come out well. James soon came rushing over to see what the problem was, followed by Sirius and Peter, who had just emerged from behind a large rock.

"What's going-? Ooh, do you three play Quidditch?" he asked interestedly, flinging away the look of haughtiness he had just been housing.

"Why d'you think we're carrying broomsticks? To sweep the floor?" demanded the Hufflepuff, and the second years walked away.

"He was nice," Sirius commented sarcastically, not looking half as excited as the scruffy-haired boy next to him, who wistfully sighed, "I wish we could play Quidditch."

"Well, we can't," said Sirius. "Live with it, Jamie."

There was silence for about a minute at the most as the four first-years began to make their way back up to the castle. "Oh my God!" James yelled suddenly, causing Peter to squeak, Remus to jump back, amber eyes flashing dark orange, and Sirius to whack the messy haired chap over the head.

"What?" asked Remus, almost growling.

"I've just had the most brilliant beyond brilliant idea!" exclaimed James, jumping up and down on his toes.

"Well stop shouting and tell us what it is," complained Sirius. "My ears are getting sore."

"Why don't we get McGonagall to organise a first-year Quidditch match?!"

"Ludicrous," Remus stated instantly, folding his arms and continuing to stroll up the hill.

"She'll never agree to it, Jim," said Sirius, sounding sympathetic as he followed slowly behind Remus's lead. James reluctantly joined, but his protests didn't stop there.

"But – but – but… she has to!" he stuttered, obviously not daring to believe that anyone could turn down the opportunity to host a Quidditch match.

"Well, good luck with that," said Remus dismissively as they reached the school and slid through the great oak doors. The Entrance Hall was, as usual, full of chattering students who crowded about chattering, hardly noticing the four Gryffindors pass, except for one of them. She was a blonde girl with podgy cheeks and was wearing Hufflepuff robes.

"Sophie!" Peter exclaimed in surprise. "Guys, this is Sophie, my sister. She's the Hufflepuff prefect."

"Nice," Sirius commented.

"I know who you two are," she indicated James and Sirius. "You're becoming quite famous after that prank you played on Slughorn last week."

"Really?" James asked incredulously. "Cool!"

"So go on, then," Sirius encouraged Sophie. "What are our names?"

"You're Sirius Black, and you're James Potter," Sophie answered promptly, pointing to each of them in turn.

"It's rude to point," scowled Remus, barely loud enough for the others. He was slightly annoyed that she hadn't mentioned his name, but then nobody _would_ know. If Remus's friends were becoming well-known, he expected that he and Peter would be seen as the smart one and the tag-along one respectively, named by their status in the group. He heaved a heavy sigh and fixed his eyes on his feet.

"What's up with you, Rem?" James asked, as Sophie left to return to her beckoning friends.

"Yeah, don't be down, Rems," Sirius assured him, patting him on the shoulder. Remus tried not to wince away at the contact. "We're famous!"

"_You two_ are famous," Remus corrected him. Without another word he walked away, kicking his heels on the marble floor, leaving the others looking uncertainly at each other.

--

When Sirius and James returned to the dormitory later, they found Remus reading on his bed, though he appeared to be staring at the page; his eyes weren't moving, and, as Sirius squinted, he could see that there were very small droplets of water in the corner.

"You all right, Rems?" he asked, sitting down by Remus's bare feet.

"Yeah," sighed Remus hesitantly, sounding a bit choked as he closed his book, "I suppose I just felt a little jealous. I'm fine now."

"Really?" Sirius asked. He could sense that much of what Remus was saying was an act. "Hey, I promise to keep a lower profile if it makes you uncomfortable."

"No," replied Remus firmly. "You couldn't do that. You'd be betraying your inner person. I can't stop you being who you are."

"As nobody else can stop you being who you are," said James. "You just be the smart, sensible one. Hey, if it wasn't for you-"

"If it _weren't_ for me," Remus corrected.

"-yeah, we'd still be pranking Snivellus with Dungbombs," James finished.

"You've taught us loads of cool spells, Remus," Peter piped up from his side of the room. "Even though I kind of… forget them."

"Peter, you're useful, too," said Remus, appearing happier than he had been before. "You're the laughs; you're the one who really makes sure we have a good time."

Sirius wondered whether Remus was making it up; Peter didn't seem to be very useful at all now that he thought about it. Nonetheless, they were all best friends, and all of them had a purpose within the group. It was almost as if they could be compared to a pride of lions or a pack of wolves.

"Did you get anywhere with this Quidditch proposal, James?" Remus asked as he propped himself up on his elbows.

"No, I didn't find McGonagall yet," James sighed, looking a bit put out. "But I've just remembered a thing of greatest importance!"

"Which is?"

"It's my birthday on the twenty-seventh!" James yelled. "So get me presents!"

"James, you can't just _demand_ presents," Peter argued. "People have got to like you enough to give you them."

"Yeah, but you chaps like me, don't you?" asked the Quidditch-obsessed boy.

"We'll see," Sirius answered, feeling he hadn't said much for a while. He looked at Remus, who was grinning from corner to corner with one of his eyebrows raised. "What are you so happy about, Remus?"

"Well," Remus began. "James is so happy that he believes his birthday is the first out of all of ours, are you not, James?"

"I am indeed," said James, wearing an expression of excitement.

"Tenth of March," Remus stated proudly, pointing to his chest. James's eyes widened as the statement sunk in. Then he huffed and slumped down onto his bed to sulk.

"Wait, that's this weekend!" Peter realised, stating the obvious. "Remus, what do you want?"

"What happened to my birthday all of a sudden?" James protested, raising himself up a little.

"Oh, bugger off, Jim," Sirius said mockingly. "Let Remus have the spotlight for a while."

"Yeah, I quite like it here," added Remus, his eyes lighting up. "Can I stay here forever?"

"No way!" yelled Peter, folding his arms across his puffed chest. "Then you'd be the best forever."

"But I _am_ the best," teased Remus.

"Right, you asked for it!" Sirius growled, and leapt forward in an instant. He landed on the bed next to Remus and bared claw-shaped fingers at his friend. Remus's eyes widened.

"You wouldn't," he hissed.

"Try me," Sirius answered, and dived at the other boy, who was soon writhing as if he was being tortured by the scraping fingers in his sides. Sirius decided he quite enjoyed tickling Remus; it was quite relaxing, that was, until he felt Remus's hand wrench at his collar and he was flung forward to be met by the claws that tickled across his skin as if Remus was treating Sirius like a piano. Sirius reached for the arm that was attacking his neck, but another went for his armpit, making him shriek and roll off the bed.

Remus, James and Peter were staring down at him, clearly bemused.

"OK, Rems," he grunted, getting to his feet. "You win."


	12. Chapter 12 Two Secrets

Chapter 12

Two Secrets

The Easter holidays whizzed past in a flash and soon Remus, along with his friends, found themselves trapped under heaps of works in preparation for their summer exams. On countless evenings Remus had to stay in to help James and Sirius catch up with the work from lessons that they'd been too bored to listen to, and to help Peter understand his notes, which was proving quite tricky.

The day of their first exam, Transfiguration, dawned sunny and warm, so the four friends snatched up some toast from the Gryffindor table and headed out to the grounds for some last-minute cramming. Remus, of course, had learnt all he needed to know so sat staring out over the lake while James and Sirius tested each other and Peter whimpered desperately about what he didn't know.

The great lake was rippling calmly in the summer breeze and the top branches of the trees shone gold in the sunlight. Remus removed his cloak and lay down onto it, focusing his eyes on a wispy cloud in the sky above him. The cloud began to break up, affected by the winds high up, and split into four pieces that sailed together through the bright blue mass and out of sight.

The young werewolf was disturbed from his thoughts when a gruff voice broke the silence.

"All righ' yeh lot?"

It was Hagrid. Remus hadn't seen the half-giant for a while, so sat up grinning.

"I'm all right," he answered, "but these three aren't so good."

"Bloody Transfiguration," Sirius grumbled, as if to tell Hagrid the situation. He groaned as he turned a page of his textbook, finding a topic he hadn't yet revised.

"Well, best o' luck to yeh," growled Hagrid happily, and he strolled away. As soon as he left, the half-hearted smiles vanished off the boys' faces and instead changed to looks of concern as they realised there was now only five minutes until the exam.

"Right, shall we go?" Remus asked, jumping up from the ground with his cloak and books in his arms.

"I suppose so," replied James. "The last thing we need is McGonagall to be angry if we're late; I need her to accept this proposal for the Quidditch tournament."

"Tournament?" blurted Peter in disbelief. "I thought it was just a match!"

But before James could answer, the bell rang and they were forced into the dreariness of the Transfiguration classroom, where they were met by desks covered in question papers. When all the first years had arrived, Professor McGonagall waved her wand and a large hourglass began to filter sand from one end to another.

"You may begin," she said. "You have precisely one hour."

Remus turned over his paper and was immediately met with a question he was familiar with. He dipped his quill into a pot of black ink and began to write.

--

Sirius's eyes flicked from his paper and searched around the dimly-lit dungeon. He checked that Slughorn was still marking the work they had been set the previous week, which he was, and then darted his gaze over Remus's work, but, being so far away, he couldn't make out the words of Remus's neat scribbles. Instead he tore his eyes away and back to the question he was facing: _'List, in order of appliance to the potion, the uses of the ingredients found in the common Sleeping Potion. This question is worth eight marks.'_

'Think, Sirius, think,' he told himself, desperately racking his brains for an answer. What _were_ the ingredients? He gave up and turned the page, only to be faced with another tricky question.

When the hour of hell was finally over, Sirius joined his friends heading out to the grounds to enjoy the cool summer evening. They settled under a large beech tree and began to chat.

"How did you find that?" James asked the others.

"Hell," answered Sirius, at the same time as Peter said, "Awful," and Remus just groaned. Sirius raised an eyebrow at him.

"What, do I have to be good at everything?" asked Remus.

"No, we knew you were no good at Quidditch," joked James. "But _potions_! Come on, Remus!"

"I find it tricky, OK?"

"So that's why you wouldn't help us revise potions," Sirius realised out loud.

"Oh dear, you're making me feel guilty now," said Remus, breaking eye contact with his friends. Sirius patted him on the back. "Nah, we're all just as rubbish as you," he assured him.

"Hey, some of us didn't find that exam too bad, because some of us actually pay attention in potions," James protested smugly.

"Shut up, Ego," snapped Sirius, feeling down. He stretched out his legs and yawned, and before he knew it he'd collapsed sleepily, with his head resting on Remus's warm lap.

--

Remus lay awake in bed, and he could see the dawn light filtering through his curtains. He checked his watch. It was six o'clock, which was slightly too early to wake anyone, so he stayed there thinking. An image of the previous evening arrived in front of his eyes, the flashback of him sitting under the tree with his friends as Sirius dropped onto his lap and fell asleep. This had caused a couple of problems for the lycanthrope, the first being how much of a dead weight Sirius was, making him pretty much unmovable. The second problem was the fact that it was _Sirius_ in his lap, which made his heart beat very fast. Remus had had a lot of trouble slowing his pace so he didn't look panic-stricken, though this was hard when he was also fighting the urge to touch the snoozing person's face and hair.

He pushed his curtains aside and glanced at Sirius in the bed opposite his. He was asleep again, his gentle snoring echoing about the room and mingling with the sounds of James and Peter's breathing. Remus studied Sirius's form carefully: his silky black hair fell gracefully over one side of his face, twisting next to his perfectly proportioned nose; his long eyelashes danced as one eye twitched; his mouth hung open slightly, revealing his pearl-white teeth.

Remus withdrew suddenly when he realised what he was doing. Why was he always looking at Sirius like that? Why was Sirius so interesting to him? He never did the same to James or Peter, but then, those two neither looked completely perfect nor were they usually in view from Remus's bed.

He shut his eyes, trying to push the thought out of his head, but as he did so, an image of the raven-haired boy appeared in his mind's eye. Remus tried to replace it with that of something else, anything. Maybe he could escape this nightmare of having a… a crush on Sirius.

_Sirius?_ He thought. Sirius was one of the most popular and handsome boys in the school, and had already kissed one girl this year. Why would he ever like a boy like Remus?

_You're just being silly,_ Remus told himself. _Sirius is a great friend. That's all there is to it._

He lay there thinking for longer and longer, until there was plenty of light in the room. He drew back the hangings again unresisting, and blinked hard when he saw that Sirius had moved so that his duvet had rolled off, revealing pyjamas that had slipped down significantly in his sleep.

Remus jumped to his feet and reached for the door. He rushed down the stairs, and, once in the common room, bumped straight into Lily.

"Remus!" she exclaimed, realising who had made her jump out of her skin.

"I need to talk to you, Lily," Remus said, grabbing her hand and leading her onto a sofa. He sat down at her side.

"What's wrong, Rems?"

Remus didn't answer straight away, deciding to fiddle with a loose thread on his pyjamas. It was only until Lily moved his hand away that he came to his senses.

"I… I think I love Sirius," Remus sighed.

"What?" Lily asked, looking surprised.

"You heard me," Remus murmured.

"I know, I know," said Lily. "It just came as a bit of a shock, that's all."

Remus sank into the sofa. "Now you think I'm a freak," he moaned.

"Remus, don't be silly!" Lily remarked, placing her hand on his head. "I would never think that of you."

"I was hoping that, of all people, it would be you I developed a relationship with," Remus grumbled, although he knew he was in denial. He saw Lily as nothing more than a friend. "And least of all, Sirius."

"Remus, stop lying to yourself," said Lily. "It's not hard to see; you've been looking at him that way for ages. And it certainly isn't anything to be ashamed of."

"But Sirius likes _girls!_" Remus cried, feeling warm tears erupting out of his eyes.

Lily didn't say anything.

"What will he think of me if I tell him?" Remus carried on.

"Are you planning to?"

"I haven't quite decided yet," said Remus, straightening up, trying to brush away his tears before Lily saw. "I don't know what to do."

"Remus, are you entirely sure this is love?" Lily asked. "Age twelve's a bit young for that. I mean, have you even reached puberty yet?"

"Look, when werewolves choose a mate, it-" Remus stopped when he saw Lily sit back, her green eyes wide.

"Oh, bugger," he slapped his head. "Fu-"

"You're a werewolf?" Lily whispered.

"Yes, I'm an effing freak and there's nothing anyone can do about it!" Remus turned away as anger welled up in his chest, and folded himself into a ball, starting to shake violently. Lily edged closer and warily wrapped her arm around his back.

"Well, I wouldn't change you," she murmured comfortingly. Remus raised his head and found her kind face through his blurred vision.

"Thank you," he croaked, as Lily held him close to her soft form and grasped his bony hand in hers.


	13. Chapter 13 The Tournament

**A/N: A longer chapter this one, with the long-awaited Quidditch tournament. **

Chapter 13

The Tournament

"Sign up here!" James yelled, pointing to his new poster on the noticeboard. Sirius, leaning on the wall next to him, examined it and saw that James had already signed himself for the place of Gryffindor Seeker. He thought back to their last Quidditch lesson when James had successfully caught a passing Snitch out of the several that the teacher had released.

"Hey, James," said Sirius, "put me down for Beater please."

James jotted down his name on the sheet of parchment and turned to him. "What do you s'pose Remus'll want to play?"

"Commentator please, Jamie," Remus called from across the Common Room, where he was buried in a thick novel. Sirius wondered how he could have heard James speak from so far away, but he decided to leave the matter unanswered.

"Remus, how boring can you get?" he yelled back at the bookworm. "Here I'm signing you down for Beater with me."

He grabbed the quill off James, spun to face the board and began to write down Remus's name on the list.

"No!" Remus protested and sprang up, making his way quickly over to the board. "The most I'm being is a reserve. We might as well have some stand-in players."

"Fine," Sirius sighed. "Beater?"

"No thanks, mate," said Remus, grimacing. "Just put me in for Chaser, all right?"

"What's Pete going to be?" James asked Sirius, his feather pressed to the parchment again, ready to write.

"Just give him something where he won't have much to do," Sirius responded. "Keeper might work, because we'll never let the Quaffle down our end of the pitch."

"Okey-doke, that's all of us," said James. "Now we just need to wait for the girls to sign up."

"Wait a moment, how many girls are there?" asked Remus, his eyes dancing as he searched the room.

"Lily, Emily and Daara," James replied promptly. ("Stalker", Emily teased as she walked past.)

"Yes!" shouted Sirius. "Remus'll have to play after all. There are only seven first year Gryffindors."

Remus rolled his eyes and sat down close by, his head once again in his book, which, Sirius acknowledged, looked particularly boring. He wondered to himself how Remus could stand reading all day long, but then, Remus probably contemplated how James enjoyed Quidditch so much.

--

"Boots?"

"Check," chanted Sirius, Peter and Remus, responding to James's voice. The Seeker was taking a protocol to ensure Gryffindor had every chance of winning.

"Good, that's everything," said James, finalising his inspection. He peered out of the changing room and gasped.

"Terries is there, in the commentator box!" he hissed, turning back to his friends.

"The team captain?" Sirius asked disbelievingly. Remus rolled his eyes as Sirius jumped up to see.

"Well obviously he's going to be looking for strong players," Remus told them, fastening the Quidditch robes, which were too big for him. "We'll be able to play Quidditch next year."

There was a slight whimper from the corner where Peter was sitting, sliding dragon-hide gloves onto his hands.

"Don't worry, Pete," James said softly. "It'll be fine. You're a Gryffindor, aren't you? You can face anything."

Peter didn't look so sure, but soon the whistle blew as a warning for the players to finalise discussing their tactics.

"Is everyone ready?" James asked. "Chasers?"

"Yes," answered Remus, along with Lily and Emily.

"Beaters?"

Sirius and Daara responded in the affirmative. James double checked that Peter was there, and replied to himself when he called 'Seeker'.

"Who are we up against first, Captain?" asked Remus, spying the list in James's hand.

"Hufflepuff," James replied promptly. The whistle sounded again. "Right, team. Let's go."

Remus gulped subtly as he clenched his hand around his broom and raised it to his side. He lined up behind Sirius, who tilted his head and asked, "All right?"

"Yeah," said Remus in a fairly high voice.

"It'll be fine once you're out there," the taller student promised. Something about his voice made Remus feel more secure, and soon their feet were treading on the sunlit grass of the pitch and came to a halt to face their Hufflepuff opponents. In unison they swung their legs over their brooms, and, as the Snitch, Bludgers and Quaffle were freed, the players took to the skies.

Remus felt a rush of air as his broom soared forwards. He swerved to face Lily, who was currently in possession of the Quaffle, and she passed to him, a look of pure determination across her face. Remus caught the red ball quickly and spun around to dodge Harold Featherly, the opposing Chaser. Amazed at his success, Remus carried on, heading towards the goal. He fixed his eyes on the target and threw the ball within a split second, exactly the same time that the Keeper spotted him. The Quaffle flew directly into the ring and Remus felt his eyes widen at his achievement.

Professor McGonagall's voice rang out through the pitch announcing the first goal.

"Well done, Remus," called Lily from halfway up the pitch. Remus smiled and took off towards her. The Quaffle was soon back in the game in the hands of Elissa Cherry, though as she passed to Featherly, Emily intercepted, and was about to give Remus the Quaffle when she raised her hand and pointed to somewhere behind him. Remus swung his head around to see a Bludger scooting straight towards his face, only a few feet away. He was about to scream when a red shape came into view and the Bludger was sent to the Hufflepuff Keeper.

"Thanks," Remus panted at Sirius, who swivelled around and winked before racing off. Remus followed suit to catch the Quaffle from the hands of a Hufflepuff.

--

Sirius sat with the rest of the Gryffindors, preparing for the final match. They'd just played against Ravenclaw and won by one-hundred and ninety to forty. Previously, Gryffindor had beaten Hufflepuff as well, and now it was time to play Slytherin, who had also triumphed in both their matches.

"Right-o, everyone," said James. "This is it. This is our deciding match. Everybody ready?"

"I think so," Lily answered, bending down to tie her boots.

"Nice arse, Evans," laughed James. Lily stood up again and flashed a piercing green glare at him. Sirius chuckled as James stared past the anger and seemed to be overwhelmed by Lily's eyes.

The whistle broke the tension of the changing room and the team lined up again, heading out to the pitch to meet the mass of green that were the Slytherins. Sirius jumped onto his broom, grasping his Beater's bat tightly in his hand. The players set off, and Sirius was instantly alert. He spotted a Bludger heading straight for James and zoomed at it. He pulled back his arm as far as it would go and swung his bat at the offending ball. The wood hit the Bludger with a mighty _thud_ and sent it on its way.

"Thanks, mate," said James gratefully.

"No problem," Sirius responded as James continued searching for the Snitch. Sirius peered at his Bludger and saw, to his horror, that it had turned and was now advancing in the totally unaware Peter's direction. He added to himself that it was too late to do anything. The Bludger was already inches away from the small boy.

"PETE, LOOK O-!"

Peter had already been hit. He toppled off his broom and fell to the ground. At the same time, Sirius fixed his eyes on Severus Snape, who was clutching the Quaffle and flying at the defenceless goal. Remus tried to intercept, but Snape shoved him aside and he went spinning off course.

Unfortunately, McGonagall hadn't spotted the foul, but Sirius wasn't going to let Snape get away with it. He leaned forward and directed his broom towards the Bludger that hat knocked Peter out of the air. He aimed his bat at the ball and hit it with such force that it travelled at twice its normal speed as it coursed through the air. It collided with Snape's broom just as he was aiming, and he dropped the Quaffle as the broom handle shattered and tore to the ground. Snape threw a furious look at Sirius, who shrugged and smiled innocently before rocketing away again.

A few minutes later, Sirius spotted a glint of gold by the stands. He narrowed his eyes and found his vision locked on the tiny Golden Snitch, that was hovering nonchalantly, its small wings flapping to keep it in the air. Sirius was about to call James, when he noticed that the Seeker had already spotted the Snitch. The Slytherin Seeker, Fernstone, was flying there from a different direction, and was the same distance away. It was going to be close.

Now everybody's attention was on the two Seekers. The rest of the game came to a standstill as every person watched.

"COME ON, JAMES!" Remus yelled from somewhere behind Sirius. James was almost there; his hand was outstretched, fingers tensed, ready to grab his target. He was so close. Fernstone was nearly there too. Both Seekers made a move to catch the Snitch at exactly the same time, but James found it first as Fernstone's eyes became wide with shock. James raised his hand above his head, the golden wings poking out from between his fingers.

Instantly, the Gryffindors roared at his victory and rushed over to congratulate him.

"Well done, James!" Sirius yelled on his way. He pushed through the others as they fell to the ground and jumped off their brooms. James was ecstatic at his accomplishment, but instead of gloating to the Slytherins, said, "Come on, let's go and find Peter."


	14. Chapter 14 Marauders of Hogwarts

Chapter 14

The Marauders of Hogwarts

For the last time in his first year at Hogwarts, Remus lay on the floor of the Shack. He sat up wearily, and rubbed his hand over a wound on his shoulder. He blinked in tiredness but found that there wasn't as much pain as he sometimes had to endure. Maybe the wolf found it more difficult to harm itself when Remus was happy, and he did feel happy: Gryffindor had won the first-year Quidditch tournament a couple of days ago, and it was the end of term in two days.

He pushed himself up to stand on his brittle feet, and stumbled over to the wardrobe, his whole body aching with every step he took. He opened the doors of the cupboard and reached for his clothes. He carefully pulled on his pants and trousers, and placed his shirt over the side of his body without so many wounds on it. Then he collected his robes, tie and shoes from the floor and limped to the entrance of the Whomping Willow.

Once out in the dim dawn light, Remus made his way slowly across the grounds, but had to rest when he reached Hagrid's hut, as the pain was so hard to endure. As he bent over panting, there was the sound of a large bolt being opened, and soon Hagrid emerged from the shed-like building.

"All righ' there, Remus?" he asked. Remus shook his head a little. "Here, come in fer a cuppa tea."

Hagrid's bulky hands latched around Remus's thin body and helped to escort him inside the hut. Remus sat down on a huge sofa next to Fang and dropped his spare clothes on the floor. He felt too tired to speak, so he just tried to look grateful as Hagrid passed him a steaming mug of tea.

"I saw yeh playin' Quidditch yesterday," Hagrid told him, seating himself in an armchair.

"Really?" Remus asked, sipping his tea and trying desperately not to spill it from the cup in his trembling hands.

"Yeah, yeh were very good," the giant man continued. "I could never play Quidditch when I was yer age."

"Oh," said Remus, not really knowing how to respond to a statement like that.

"But that James, eh? Like a rocket, weren' he?"

"Yeah, he's very enthusiastic about Quidditch," croaked Remus. "He wants to be a Seeker as soon as he can."

"Tha' won't be long," remarked Hagrid, pouring himself some tea from the pot. "Professor McGonagall was clearly impressed."

Before Remus could say another word, there was a shout from outside. Hagrid rose from his chair and plodded over to the door. Remus tried to see past him, but it was no use; Hagrid was just too big.

"Hello, Madam Pomfrey," said Hagrid cheerily. "What can I do for yeh?"

Remus gulped feeling guilty. He must have worried the matron by disappearing from the Shack. He heard Madam Pomfrey utter a few words, his name included.

"Oh, sorry," Hagrid said. "E's righ' here."

He moved aside to let Madam Pomfrey in. The matron looked disapproving but relieved, and she helped Remus to his feet and began to drag him out of the hut.

"Thanks for the tea, Hagrid," Remus muttered hoarsely, his throat grinding painfully as he spoke.

"See yeh next year, Remus," Hagrid cried, waving, as Remus walked further away, and towards to castle.

--

"Quick, James! Set it off," Sirius urged as James lit the end of one of Dr Fillibuster's fireworks with his wand. The cord started to fizzle, and the two boys rushed out of Filch's office at full speed, slamming the door behind them.

"Let's get out of here," said James. Sirius nodded in agreement and the two of them legged it, until they had arrived three floors up in the mesh of moving staircases, where they stood panting, their ears alert, waiting for the sound of the explosion, then Filch's livid shouting.

"What have you two been up to?"

James and Sirius jumped at the sound, but realised the voice was a familiar one. The butterflies of dread left Sirius's stomach as he rotated himself, to see Remus walking steadily towards him and James, grinning mischievously. Sirius grinned back, feeling pleased that their friend had returned; he'd been away for a couple of days to attend his great aunt's funeral.

"Hello, Mr-I-Got-Full-Marks-In-All-My-Exams," James greeted him, waving. "We're just waiting."

"For what?" Remus asked, as he leaned on the stone banister next to the other two. Sirius was about to answer him when a huge _'BOOM!'_ sounded and shook the floors of the castle. James was knocked off his feet and Remus leaped aside as part of the banister crumbled. A worried look shot across his face, but was removed when Sirius and James both burst out laughing.

"YES!" they shouted together, bounding up and punching the air.

"What part of the castle did you just blow up?" Remus asked calmly but suspiciously.

"Filch's office," replied Sirius, his laughter echoing off the heavily decorated walls of the castle, where the various portraits commented on his and James's acts. Several tutted while others laughed with the two boys. Sirius looked at Remus again and saw that the smaller boy could barely suppress his own chuckles, and soon joined in with the other two.

Before any of them could do anything else, there came an angry bellow from the end of the corridor.

"You three!"

It was Filch, and he was strolling towards them, anger raging in his red face. Remus stopped laughing at once but James and Sirius took a while to do the same. They stared at each other, their teeth fastened on their bottom lips to stifle their amusement, though according to them, Filch's beetroot-like face was the funniest sight in the history of Hogwarts.

"You three think it's funny to blow up my office, don't you?" Filch yelled, though he was only a foot away from all of them and showering them with spit.

James was about to argue, when Remus spoke up, staring courageously into Filch's beady eyes.

"Really, Mr Filch," he said innocently. "How could first-years ever get their hands on something explosive? I don't know who blew up your office, but I'd think it wise to go and find Peeves, before blaming others that could never be capable of committing a crime like that."

Filch frowned, shot them one last furious glare, and limped away. When he was out of earshot, James patted Remus on the back. "Thanks, mate," he said. "We owe you one."

"No you don't," said Remus. "We're a group. Technically, it was all of us who blew up Filch's office. Unless… do you have any chocolate?"

James and Sirius couldn't hold back their mirth for a second longer, and collapsed at Remus's statement.

"Come on," said Remus. "Let's get back to the Common Room before anyone else takes us in for questioning."

Arriving back at the Common Room, Remus commented, "Now that was pretty good, but I know something worthwhile that you two ought to know too."

"What is it?" asked Sirius, wondering what could be more impressive than a firework destroying Filch's office.

"I found out where the school kitchens are," was the brief but truly stunning reply.

But there was no time for Remus to tell them how as they caught sight of Peter hunched over a piece of parchment in the corner of the room, and made their way over to him.

"Have you chaps been marauding again?" Peter asked, slyly.

"Yes, Pete, we have," said James, puffing his chest up with pride. "The marauders, that's us."

"Hang on," said Remus, abruptly holding a hand up to prevent James from saying anything else. "That sounds good. Say it again."

"What? Marauders?" James asked, appearing slightly confused at why he had to say the word again.

"Yeah," Remus pondered, looking thoughtful. "_Marauders."_

"Remus, Peter, Sirius and James, the Marauders of Hogwarts," Sirius announced, his face lighting up as he repeated his words in his head and they rung through his brain. "Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

--

Remus waited at the end of the huge crowd of students that were climbing off the Hogwarts Express and dashing to be reunited with their families. On the journey home, he and the other Marauders had enjoyed their last moments of their first year together, playing cards, stuffing themselves with chocolate and sweets, and trying to invent a Marauder Oath they could use again and again.

As they scrambled off the train and onto the platform, Remus took a sharp intake of breath at the thought that their first year at Hogwarts was finished already. He turned to face his friends, who were also looking a little overwhelmed.

"See you soon," Remus told all of them, tears beginning to form in his eyes. He tried to rub them away without drawing attention to himself.

"Don't be sad, Rems," said Sirius, pulling him into a clumsy bear-hug, that was over almost as soon as it started. "It's only two months."

"We'll write every day," Peter promised, though he looked on the verge of crying himself. Remus smiled sadly and held out his hand, his palm facing upwards. The other three rested their own hands over his, and all four Marauders recited together:

"_We're the Maruaders and our names_

_Are Remus, Peter, Sirius and James_

_We're the pranksters of Hogwarts_

_The foes of the teachers_

_The cleverest minds_

_And the mischief-preachers_

_We're the Marauder clan_

_The best of friends_

_The unstoppable group_

_That'll never end."_

Sirius was delighted, and Remus knew why; that was the first time they'd all remembered the words.

"I think it needs a bit of fine-tuning," Remus added, collecting his trunk from the ground. He heaved it onto a trolley and went to find his father, who was standing at the back of the crowd, peering over people's heads for his son. Remus tapped his shoulder, beaming, glad to be going home.

"Have a good year?" asked John Lupin, taking the cart from Remus's hands and starting to push it away. Remus nodded happily. "Did you make any friends?"

"I certainly did, Dad," the young werewolf answered with pleasure. They were about to leave the platform when Lily pounced on Remus from behind, making him jump out of his skin, and pulled him into a tight hug. When she released him, Remus said, out of breath, "See you soon, Lily."

"Bye," said Lily, waving. She hurried away to her parents and sister.

"Ready to go?" asked Mr Lupin. Remus nodded and followed his father off the platform to the main station, but took one last glance back at the train. Only two months and he'd be there again, ready to begin his second year at Hogwarts.

**A/N: And it's the end!!! If you've noticed anything at all at any point in the story that's wrong or doesn't flow well, please, **_**please**_** tell me and I will sort it out. Please also tell me if I've left anything important out! (PS I am aware that the Voldemort thing has been discontinued. Don't worry, as it will carry on in the next part.)**

**Thanks for reading. Marauders second year, first chapter, is currently being written, so look out for it soon.**


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